University  of  California. 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  1894. 
^Accessions  No . Si? ^3 0  •      Class  No. 


V 


I 


vw:archTve:oTg;dmairsmrenaofmoses, 


RECOMMENDATIONS. 


Theological  Seminary, 
Columbia,  S.  C,  February  25th,  1852. 
Reverend  and  Dear  Sir, 

I  have  heard  that  it  is  your  intention  to  present  in  a  more  perma- 
nent form,  the  substance  of  those  Essays  in  defence  of  the  Mosaic 
writings,  which  have  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the  Southern  Presby- 
terian. I  cannot  but  express  my  high  appreciation  of  the  diligence  and 
ability  manifested  by  you  in  investigating  those  intricate  subjects  of 
scientific  and  antiquarian  research,  which  are  so  far  beyond  the  read- 
ing of  most  professional  men. 

While  difiering  in  one  or  two  minor  points,  I  have  a  full  conviction  of 
the  general  soundness  of  your  conclusions,  and  a  belief  that  your  book 
will  be  a  timely  aid  to  many  inquiring  minds,  which  either  need  to  be 
better  informed  as  to  the  early  documents  of  our  faith,  or  are  in  danger 
of  perversion  from  the  skepticism  of  philosophy,  falsely  so-called. 

From  the  substance  of  your  work  which  lies  before  me,  I  cannot 
but  commend  it  to  the  attention  of  thinking  men,  and  to  our  students 
of  divinity,  who  will  find  it  of  material  service,   in  enabling  them  to 
make  up  their  minds  on  the  difficult  points  on  which  you  speak. 
I  remain, 

Very  truly  yours. 
Rev.  Dr.  Hamilton.  GEO.  HOWE. 


[From  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Review,  Columbia,  S.  C,  Jan.  1852.] 
"  The  attention  paid  by  Dr.  Hamilton  to  the  modern  skeptical  objec- 
tions to  the  Scriptures,  as  exhibited  in  various  of  his  recent  writings, 
entitles  him  to  the  thanks  of  the  Christian  Church."  (p.  453.) 


I  RECOMMENDATIO]S'S. 

[Extract  of  a  letter  from  Reverend  W.  A.  Scott,  D.D..  of  New  Orleans, 
to  the  Author.] 

"  I  have  read  with  some  care  your  last  articles.  The  first  series  I 
read  as  they  appeared  in  the  New  Orleans  Presbyterian,  I  am  more  in- 
terested in  your  Essays  on  the  Deluge,  Moses,  and  Death,  than  in  the 
others.  This  may  be,  not  because  they  are  more  able,  but  because 
they  embrace  points  that  have  given  me  more  trouble  than  the  other 
subjects  do ;  and  because  they  strike  me  as  being  more  original,  and 
adapted  to  the  times. 

'^  I  regard  all  your  Essays  as  able,  clear,  and  highly  valuable  to  the 
cause  of  truth.  I  think  they  should  be  presented  to  the  public  in  a 
more  permanent,  convenient,  and  inviting  form,  than  as  newspaper  es- 
says.   As  to  the  Deluge,  I  concur  with  you. 

"  When  I  read,  several  years  ago,  the  work  of  the  very  learned  and 
able  Dr.  John  Pye  Smith,  on  '  Geology  and  Scripture,'  I  came  to  a  con- 
clusion the  reverse  of  what  he  sought  to  establish.  I  believe,  as  you 
show,  that  the  Deluge  was  universal,  and  that  it  was  caused  by  the 
sinking  of  the  land  of  the  old  world,  and  the  rising  up  of  the  bed  of 
former  seas  and  oceans.  Nor  is  it  at  all  improbable  that  some  island 
or  continent  may  yet  arise  from  ocean's  depths,  with  antediluvian  re- 
mains upon  it,  to  confound  the  enemies  of  the  Bible,  &c.  &c. 

(Signed,)    "W.A.SCOTT. 

"  New  Orleans,  Oct.  13,  1861." 


THE 

"FRIEND  OF  MOSES;" 

OB, 

A  DEFENCE  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH 

AS 

THE  PRODUCTION  OF  MOSES  AND  AN 
INSPIRED  DOCUMENT, 

AGAINST 

THE  OBJECTIONS   OF   MODERN   SKEPTICISM. 


BY 

WM.  T.  HAMILTON,  D.D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  GOVEENMENT  STREET  CHURCH,  MOBILE,  ALA. 


NEW    YORK: 
PUBLISHED    BY    M.    W.    DODD, 

BRICK  CHURCH  CHAPEL,  OPPOSITE  CITY  HALL. 

1852. 


^^    Of   TBDi*^^ 


^- 


j£*^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1852, 

BY     M.    W.    DODD, 

In  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


STKREOTYPKD   BY  THOMAS    B.    SMITH, 
216  WILLIAM  STREET,   N.  T. 


THE  PEOPLE  OF  MY  PASTORAL  CHARGE, 

THE  CONGREGATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  ST.  CHURCH,  MOBILE  : 

TO  ALL  SINCERE  INQUIRERS  AFTER  TRUTH, 

AND     MORE     PARTICULARLY    TO    STUDENTS     OF     DIVINITY: 

TO  DR.  J.  C.  NOTT  OF  MOBILE, 

WHOM,  WIDELY  THOUGH  WE  DIFFER  IN  OUR  VIEWS  ON  THE  SUBJECTS  HERE 

DISCUSSED,  I  YET  RESPECT  AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  WRITER,  ESTEEM 

AS  A  MAN,  AND  VALUE  AS  A  FRIEND  : 

AND   ALSO   TO   THE 

MINISTERS  AND  ELDERS  OF  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 
AT  THE  SOUTH, 


@^l)i6   boinmc. 


THE  FRUIT  OF  CAREFUL  RESEARCH  AND  MUCH  THOUGHT,  IS  RESPECTFULLY 
AND  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED,  BY 

WM.  T.  HAMILTON. 

Mobile,  March  15th,  1852. 


/;"?"  1  V 


.^^I^-A.^ 


£4 


PREFACE. 


The  object  of  the  little  work  now  presented  to  the  public  is  de- 
clared in  the  Title  Page.  It  is  designed  as  a  vindication  of  that  part 
of  the  records  of  our  faith,  known  as  the  books  of  Moses,  from  the 
objections  and  the  misrepresentations  that  have  been  advanced  and 
diligently  propagated  within  the  last  half-century.  These  objections 
are  drawn  from  various  sources — from  science — from  critical  re- 
search— and  from  oriental  archives.  That  every  objection  here  no- 
ticed is  answered  satisfactorily,  the  Author  dare  not  flatter  himself: 
"but  that  each  objection  has  been  carefully  weighed  and  impartially 
examined,  with  the  best  means  of  judgment  accessible  to  him,  he 
does  aflarm. 

Several  years  have  elapsed  since  circumstances,  which  it  is  not 
necessary  here  to  explain,  induced  the  writer  to  direct  his  attention 
once  again,  and  more  particularly,  to  the  subjects  discussed  in  this 
volume,  many  of  which  had  occupied  his  attention  and  awakened 
his  lively  interest,  in  earlier  life. 

In  writing  these  pages,  the  Author  has  freely  availed  himself  of 
the  works  of  others.  Generally,  reference  is  expressly  made  to  the 
works  so  used  :  but  it  is  very  possible  that  the  thoughts,  and  even 
the  words  of  others,  may  have  been  introduced,  even  into  the  text, 
where  such  reference  is  not  made.  In  preparing  a  work  like  this, 
amid  the  varied  avocations  of  a  Christian  pastor,  settled  in  a 
Southern  city,  such  omissions  are  almost  unavoidable. 

At  the  close  of  the  volume  will  be  appended  a  list  of  most  of  the 
authors  herein  referred  to,  or  consulted ;  and  the  edition  will  be 
named,  so  that  if  plagiarism  be  suspected,  it  may  be  detected  with- 
out difficulty. 

The  Lecture  on  the  Unity  of  the  Human  Race,  with  which  the 
volume  closes,  is  designed  rather  as  the  introduction  to  a  fuller  dis- 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

cussion  of  that  important  point,  whicli  the  Author  hopes  hereafter 
to  prepare  for  publication. 

How  numerous  and  formidable  soever  may  be  the  objections 
that  lie,  on  scientific  grounds,  against  the  doctrine  that  the  whole 
population  of  the  globe  are  of  one  stock — the  descendants  of  Adam 
and  Eve,  and  again  of  Noah — the  teachings  of  the  Bible  leave  us 
no  alternative.  So,  at  least,  it  seems  to  the  author  of  this  volume. 
No  view  of  this  subject  that  has  been  put  forth  by  other  writers, 
fully  satisfies  his  mind. 

Could  the  lapse  of  time,  aided  by  climatic  influence,  diversity  of 
food,  of  habits,  &c.,  be  supposed  adequate  to  accomplish  such  changes 
as  must  have  been  made  in  the  different  colonies  of  Noah's  descend- 
ants, in  order  to  produce  the  various  races  of  men  now  inhabiting 
our  globe ;  yet  the  records  of  the  East,  the  monuments  of  Egypt, 
and  the  contents  of  her  catacombs,  show  a  similar  diversity  to  have 
existed  at  so  early  a  period,  that  there  was  not — adopt  what  system 
of  chronology  you  may — sufficient  time  between  the  Deluge  and  the 
first  recorded  evidence  of  the  existence  of  that  diversity,  to  account 
for  the  production  of  that  change.  The  reasoning  of  the  learned 
Pritchard  on  that  subject,  and  the  argument  of  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas 
Smythe,  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  do  not,  therefore,  fully  meet  the  case. 

A  more  attentive  consideration  of  the  sacred  record  given  in 
Genesis,  has  led  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  miraculous  confounding 
of  tongues  at  Babel  was  attended  by  such  modification  of  man's 
physical  constitution,  as  to  insure  the  speedy  production  of  those 
changes  necessary  to  adapt  the  several  divisions  of  man  to  the  cli- 
mate and  the  locality  to  which  they  were  destined.  This  idea  is 
presented  in  the  closing  Lecture,  on  the  Unity.  It  was  embodied  in 
Essays  on  that  subject  published  in  the  Mobile  Herald  and  Tribune, 
in  August  and  September,  1850  ;  and  also  in  the  Southeni  Presby- 
terian, published  at  Milledgville,  Ga.,  about  the  same  time.  Ad- 
missible or  otherwise,  that  view  of  the  subject  the  author  of  these 
pages  claims  as  original.  He  has  seen  the  same  idea  advanced  by 
other  writers  since  that  period,  without  any  acknowledgment  of  its 
origin.  Previously  to  the  issue  of  the  Essays  above  referred  to,  he 
never  met  with  the  idea  in  the  works  of  any  author.  Yet  it  is  so 
simple,  and,  as  he  conceives,  so  natural  an  inference,  in  the  circum- 
stances, that  very  possibly  it  may  have  occurred  to  other  minds, 
unprompted,  as  it  did  to  his  own. 


PREFACE.  IX 

The  dispersion  of  mankind  after  the  Deluge,  the  origin  of  nations, 
the  history  of  writing,  and  the  great  and  perplexed  question  of  Bib- 
lical chronology,  are  reserved  for  discussion  in  a  future  work,  should 
life  and  ability  be  spared. 

Objections  are  sometimes  urged  against  Christian  pastors  engaging 
in  works  like  the  present,  apart  from  their  appropriate  duties  as 
ministers  of  reconciliation.  On  that  subject,  the  author  of  this  work 
begs  leave  to  present  the  following  sensible  remarks,  extracted  from 
a  letter  addressed  to  him  by  an  intelligent,  a  learned,  and  a  judicious 
friend,  who  is  himself  also  a  Christian  pastor,  and  one  eminently 
successful  and  universally  esteemed,  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Scott,  D.D.,  of 
New  Orleans : 

"  I  am  aware  that  there  are  objections  to  pastors,  and  even  to 
learned  professors  engaging  in  services  ab  extra^  or  supplementary 
to  their  ordinary  duties.  Certainly  a  pastor's  responsibihties  to  his 
people  are  awful.  Well  may  he  cry  out,  as  he  considers  this, '  Lord^ 
who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  f  A  right-minded  pastor  will  feel 
that  his  people  are  emphatically  committed  to  his  care,  that  he  is 
set  over  them  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  watch  for  their  souls  as  one 
that  must  give  an  account  to  God.  But,  is  his  soul  to  be  fettered 
down  to  his  own  parish  ?  Is  he  not  to  pray  and  labor  for  the  Church 
universal,  and  for  the  conversion  of  the  world  ?  What  would  havo 
been  the  state  and  character  of  our  Christian  literature,  if  all  the 
men  of  God  before  us,  had  thought  and  labored  only  and  exclusively 
for  their  own  immediate  congregations — if  they  had  contented  them- 
selves with  doing  nothing  but  preaching  repentance  and  faith  ?  How 
much  would  the  Church  of  Christ  have  lost  by  such  a  narrow-minded, 
suicidal  policy  ?  Who  will  defend  the  outposts  of  the  gospel,  if  pas- 
tors do  not  ?  On  this  very  point  I  have  met  with  a  paragraph  in  the 
work  on  '  The  Letter  and  Spirit^''  by  Dr.  Vaughan,  (editor  of  the  Brit- 
ish Quarterly  Review,)  which  is  worthy  of  being  carefully  considered. 

" '  Concerning  this  doctrine,  {i.e.  that  pastors  should  do  nothing  but 
what  relates  to  the  immediate  wants  of  their  congregations,  he  says,) 
we  know  not  another  doctrine  more  likely  to  be  acceptable  to  the 
prince  of  darkness  ;  for  we  know  not  another  which,  in  proportion 
to  its  prevalence,  would  operate  more  thorouglily  to  his  purpose. 
Now,  as  through  all  past  time,  not  only  the  preaching  of  the  gos- 
pel, but  the  defence  of  Christianity  through  the  world,  if  sustained 
at  all,  must  be  sustained  chiefly  by  men  who  are  by  profession  its 


X  PREFACE. 

ministers.  Such  is  the  manifest  design  of  Providence;  and  the 
meddling  and  short-sighted  men  who  oppose  themselves  to  it,  know 
not  what  they  do.  If  the  priesthood  of  the  sanctuary  is  to  be  a 
match  for  the  priesthood  of  letters,  the  path  of  its  labors  must  be- 
come wider  and  more  diversified  every  day.  Men  who  see  this, 
must  give  Httle  heed  to  those  who  see  it  not.'  (Letter  and  Spirit,  p. 
78,  London,  1849.) 

"  Again,"  (continues  Dr.  Scott,)  "  the  same  arguments  which  call 
for  higher,  and  wider,  and  more  diversified,  and  more  earnest  work 
in  the  pulpit,  call  equally  loud  for  the  use  of  the  press  in  behalf  of 
the  same  object.  The  religious  literature  that  is  needed  must  be 
of  a  high  character ;  and  while  it  may  not  professedly  labor  for  the  con- 
version of  souls,  will,  nevertheless,  lead  to  that  most  important  result. 

"Whatever  removes  prejudices,  cancels  objections  to  the  Bible, 
opens  up  the  understanding  to  discern  true  judgment,  and  exhibits 
Christianity  in  alliance  with  common  sense,  and  with  the  general 
intelligence  and  culture  of  the  age, — in  a  word,  whatever  contributes 
to  give  the  religion  of  the  Bible  a  social  status,  contributes,  under 
God,  to  give  it  a  converting  power. 

"  In  the  irrigation  of  Egypt,*  there  is  much  apart  from,  and  prior 
to,  the  long  wished-for,  and  harvest-producing  flood !  There  are 
all  the  appliances  and  machinery  of  human  effort  waiting  for  the 
Providence-sent  overflowing. 

"  So,  in  the  history  of  society  and  in  the  experience  of  individnalo, 
there  is  much  that  is  not  only  preliminary  to  conversion,  but  apart 
from,  and  yet  in  order  to  conversion.  The  truth  must  come  into 
actual  contact  with  the  men,  before  it  can  make  them  free.  They 
must  hear  of  Christ,  and  have  knowledge  of  Him,  before  they  can 
believe  in  him.  Whatever,  then,  contributes  to  place  the  Bible  be- 
fore men  of  intelligence,  freed  from  their  prejudices  against  it,  and 
gives  it,  in  their  view,  authority,  as  the  word  of  God,  contributes  to 
their  conversion,  if  they  become  obedient  to  its  teachings.'''' 

In  these  excellent  views,  the  author  of  this  work  heartily  concurs 
with  Dr.  Scott. 

Mobile,  March  15,  1852. 

*  Dr.  Scott  has  recently  made  a  tour  in  Egypt  and  the  East. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS, 


PAGK 

Dkdication V 

PUEFAOE Vii 

Introduction — Presenting  a  brief  View  of  the  German  Geological 
Mode  of  Interpretation vii 


LECTUKE  I. 

THE  CHARACTER  OF  MOSES  AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A 
STATESMAN. 

The  probable  Date  of  his  Birth  under  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty.— 
Education. — Rabbinical  Traditions  respecting  his  Infancy. — His 
Military  Career  in  Ethiopia. — His  Purity  of  Character. — Firmness. — 
Military  Achievements. — Conjecture  as  to  Monumental  Records  of 
it. — His  Skill  as  a  Leader. — His  Accuracy  as  a  Historian. — Charac- 
teristics of  his  Style  as  a  Writer. — Sagacity  as  a  Statesman. — "Wis- 
dom as  a  Legislator. — Peculiarities  of  the  Mosaic  Institutions. — 
CivD.  Polity. — Law  of  Murder,  and  Cities  of  Refuge. — Moral  Code. 
— Mosaic  Institutions  and  Laws  not  borrowed  from  Egypt. — Testi- 
monies on  that  Point. — General  Summary 35 


LECTUKE  II. 

TO  THE   UNKNOWN   GOD. 

The  Necessity  of  a  Revelation  to  Man :  argued  from  the  Religious 
Instinct  innate  in  Man. — The  Importance  of  Human  Destiny. — Man's 
limited    Powers, — The  enfeebling  Influence  of  Moral  Obliquity. — 


xii  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

The  Character  of  the  Religious  Systems  embraced  among  the  most 
enlightened  Nations  of  Antiquity. — Hindoo  Sacred  Books.— China : 
the  Chou-King,  and  Confucius. — Ancient  Persians. — Religious  Sys- 
tem of  the  Ancient  Egyptians. — Idea  of  One  God  not  exhibited  in 
Egyptian  Monuments. — Ethical  Teachings  of  the  Ancient  Philos- 
ophers.— General  Sentiment  of  Antiquity  betraying  an  Expectation 
of  a  Revelation 80 


LECTUEE  in. 

THE  BIBLE  AS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD. 

Definition. — ^The  Books  of  which  the  Bible  is  composed  are  of  extreme 
Antiquity. — Mis-statements  of  Strauss  corrected. — Care  of  the  Jews 
in  transcribing. — The  Bible  itself  claims  to  be  Divine. — In  it  nothing 
inconsistent  with  this  high  Claim. — Contrast  PueriUties  of  Religious 
Systems  of  India  and  Egypt. — Bible  worthy,  in  every  Point,  of  its 
high  Claim. — Miracles,  what :  Instances :  a  suitable  Attestation  of  a 
Revelation. — Miracles  not  impossible,  or  the  Admission  of  them 
absurd. — Peculiar  Character  of  the  Jews  inexplicable  but  on  Admis- 
sion of  Mosaic  Miracles. — Those  of  Gospel  admitted  by  early  Assail- 
ants of  Christianity. — Influence  of  the  Bible  on  Man  proves  it 
Divine. — Nations  without  the  Bible :  Romans,  Chaldaeans,  Persians, 
Assyrians. — China,  Ancient  Civilization. — Curious  Evidences  of  it. — 
Eclipses. — Seven  Years'  Famine. — Mariner's  Compass. — Printing. — 
Ancient  Egypt. — Ridiculous  Superstitions. — New  Evidence  for  the 
Bible  constantly  turning  up  as  Time  moves  on  and  Science  and 
Learning  advance 10& 


LECTUEE  lY. 

AUTHENTICITY  AND  GENUINENESS  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH 
AS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES. 

Five  Books  bearing  the  Name  of  Moses. — Indispensable  as  an  Introduc- 
tion to  the  other  Sacred  Books. — Always  regarded  by  the  Jews  as 
the  Work  of  their  great  Lawgiver. — So  regarded  by  the  Learned  in 
Europe  and  in  the  United  States. — Some  who  once  denied,  after 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

PAGB 

thorough  Examination,  admitted  the  Mosaic  Origin  of  these  Books. 
— The  Books  themselves  state  repeatedly  that  Moses  wrote  them, 
and  wrote  by  God's  Command. — In  the  later  Jewish  Scriptures  tliese 
Books  are  often  mentioned  as  the  Law  :  the  Law  given  by  Moses. 
— Written  Books,  not  an  Oral  Law  meant. — Hilkiah  did  not  palm 
on  Josiah  Forged  Documents  as  a  "Work  of  Moses. — Hilkiah  found 
the  Autograph  Copy  of  Moses. — The  Pentateuch  was  the  Statute 
Book  of  the  Jewish  Nation. — Evidence  of  Existence  of  Pentateuch, 
and  regarded  as  the  Work  of  Moses  in  Ages  subsequent  to  the  Cap- 
tivity.— Mentioned  in  Historical  Books ;  in  Prophets ;  in  Psalms. — 
Samaritan  Copy. — Testimony  of  Josephus. — Translation  of  the 
Seventy. — Imposition  impossible. — Character  and  Style  of  these 
Books  agree  precisely  with  what  we  know  of  Moses,  and  with  no 
other  Man. — Mosaic  Origin  distinctly  acknowledged  by  Christ  and 
the  Apostles. — No  Ancient  Author  supported  by  an  equal  Amount 
of  Evidence 144 


LECTUKE  Y. 

GENESIS,   THE  WOKK  OF  MOSES,   AND  INSPIRED. 

A  necessary  Opening  to  the  other  Five  Books. — The  first  Eleven 
Chapters  inseparably  connected  with  all  the  rest. — Its  Importance 
as  the  Basis  of  all  History. — Recapitulation  of  Argument  in  Lecture 
IV. — Internal  Evidence  in  this  and  the  other  Books  of  the  Penta- 
teuch that  they  emanated  from  the  same  Author. — Christ  and  the 
Writers  of  the  New  Testament  recognized  Genesis  as  the  Work  of 
Moses. — Many  Passages  in  the  other  Jewish  Writers  clearly  imply 
tlie  same. — Whether  entirely  Original,  or  Compiled  from  other 
sources,  not  Material. — Moses  gave  it  to  the  Jews. — Notions  of 
Vitringa,  Astruc,  &c.,  as  to  many  Fragmentary  Documents. — The 
Theory  of  a  Jehovah  Document,  and  an  Elohim  Document. — No 
contradictory  Repetitions. — Moses  proceeds  Logically,  giving  Gen- 
erals first,  Particulars  afterwards. — Genesis  always  esteemed  by 
Jews  as  the  Work  of  Moses. — Found  in  every  Ancient  Copy,  and 
every  Version  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures. — Testimony  of  distinguished 
Ancient  Heathen  Writers  to  the  Leading  Facts  in  the  Mosaic 
History,  and  to  the  wide-spread  Reputation  of  Moses  as  a  States- 
man, a  Lawgiver,  and  a  Writer 192 

1 


Xiv  CONTEXTS. 

LECTUKE  YI. 

CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

PAGE 

Is  this  true  ? — In  what  Sense  is  it  true  ? — All  Truths  are  consistent 
one  with  another. — God's  Works  and  his  Word  must  harmonize. — 
Care  demanded  in  explaining  the  Sacred  Record. — Mere  Theories, 
plausible  but  not  proved,  weigh  not  against  the  Averments  of 
Scripture. — The  Nebular  Hypothesis,  and  Doctrine  of  Development 
from  Lower  to  Higher  Forms  of  Animal  Life,  both  rejected  among 
Scientific  Men. — Importance  of  full  Confidence  in  Bible  Statements. 
— Theory  of  Diversity  of  Origin  for  the  Human  Races,  a  bare  un- 
supported Hypothesis. — Difficulty  of  a  minutely  particular  Interpre- 
tation of  the  first  Chapter  in  Genesis. — Indefinite  Gap  between  the 
Beginning,  Gea  L  1,  and  the  Six  Days'  Creation. — Opinions  of 
Eminent  Men. — Theory  of  Days  of  Indefinite  Duration,  Geological 
Cycles,  considered. — Four  Objections  to  that  Theory. — Attempted 
Explanation  of  Creation  in  Six  Days. — Meaning  of  Terms  Create, 
Make,  Fashion,  <fec. — Pearson. — Mosaic  Account  shown  to  be  most 
Reasonable,  by  a  comparison  with  Diodorus,  Diogenes  Laertius,  and 
Wilkinson  respecting  the  Egyptians.  —  Hindoo  Cosmogony. — De 
Lembre,  Bentley,  Sir  W.  Jones,  and  others. — The  Chaldaeans. — 
Absurd  Fables  of  the  old  Chinese  Authors. — Man  of  recent  Origin 
on  Earth,  as  Moses  testifies,  demonstrated  by  Science. — Sacredness 
of  the  Weekly  Sabbath 226 


LECTURE  VII. 

POPULATION  OF  THE  EARTH  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  CAIN,  AND 
LONGEVITY  OF  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

Story  of  Caia — Bloody  Sacrifices. — Prescribed  Mode  of  Worship  and 
Priesthood. — Father  of  Family  the  Priest. — Meaning  of  "  Stood  be- 
fore the  Lord  ;"  "  Went  out  from  the  Presence  of  the  Lord." — Mark 
set  on  Cain. — Where  Cain  obtained  a  Wife. — Rapid  Increase  of  the 
Famdies  of  Man. — Incestuous  Marriages. — Such  Marriages  at  first 
inevitable,  on  every  Theory  of  Races. — Antediluvian  Longevity, 
corroborated  by  Ancient  Tradition  in  other  Nations,  and  the  recorded 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PA.OK 

Reigns  of  their  early  Sovereigns. — Reasons  for  preferring  the  Sep- 
tuagint  Chronology  to  the  Hebrew. — Egyptian  Monumental  Records 
present  nothing,  fully  authenticated,  that  can  shake  the  Credit  of  Moses  26*7 


LECTUEE  YIII. 

THE  GIANTS. 

These  Ancient  Bible  Histories  not  borrowed  from  Heathen  Mythology. 
— Import  of  the  Phrase,  "  Sons  of  God,"  and  "  Daughters  of  Men." — 
Superstitious  Notions  of  early  Christian  Writers  on  this  subject. — 
Curious  Account  from  Maimonides,  of  the  Origin  of  Idolatry. — Evil 
of  Lustful  Marriages. — Giants,  Import  of  the  Term. — Not  necessarily 
of  huge  Stature. — Probable  Origin, — No  Evidence  that  Ancients 
generally  were  of  larger  Stature  than  Moderns. — Supposed  Bones 
of  Antediluvian  Giants  disinterred  were  not  Human. — Instances  of 
unusual  Stature,  Ancient  and  Modern. — Men  of  gigantic  Stature 
mentioned  in  diflferent  Parts  of  the  Bible  as  extraordinary  Cases. — 
Such  still  occur. — Patagonians,  &c. 294 


LECTUEE  IX. 

DEATH  AMONG  THE  CREATURES  OF  GOD.- 
EXTENT,  AND  CONSEQUENCES. 

To  Man,  the  Fruit  of  Sin,  wide-spread  Consequences. — Benevolently 
ordered,  to  the  Individual,  to  Society. — Extent  of  Death. — Universal 
in  Animal  Creation. — Is  Death  among  Lower  Animals  the  Fruit  of 
Man's  Sin? — Difficulties  attending  the  Affirmative. — Facts  adduced 
proving  that  Death  did  invade  the  Animal  Occupants  of  this  Globe 
before  Adam  sinned ;  before  Man  was  formed. — Fossil  Remains  in 
Geological  Strata. — Gigantic  Fossil  Saurian,  with  Remains  in  its 
Stomach  of  Animals'  on  which  it  had  fed. — Animal  Remains  abun- 
dant in  nearly  all  Rocks,  Limestone,  Chalk,  Polishing-stone. — In- 
fusoria incredibly  abundant. — Vast  Mountains  mere  Masses  of  Re- 
mains of  Dead  Animalculae. — Pyramids. — Coral. — Deltas  of  Rivers. 
— Death  inevitable  to  Material  Organization. — Law  of  Eden. — 
Tree  of  Life 312 


XVl  CONTENTS. 

LECTURE  X. 

THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL.   PART  I. 

PAoa 

Bible  not  a  Text-Book  of  Science,  yet  contains  much  deeply  interest- 
ing to  the  Scientific. — Faith  of  Noah. — Active  Obedience. — Moses 
teaches,  the  Flood  universal. — His  Language  implies  it. — The 
Narrative  is  History,  not  Allegory. — Evidence  from  New  Testa- 
ment— Theory  of  Local  Inundation. — Universal  Tradition  in  aU 
Nations. — Ceremonies  commemorative  of  a  Deluge  universal. — 
Chaldaeans,  Gentoos,  Indians  of  Mexico  and  South  America. — Origin 
of  Mounds  and  Pyramids. — Chinese. — Argument  therefrom. — Ly  ell's 
Theory  unreasonable. — Supposed  Traces  of  Diluvian  Action  on  the 
Earth. — Views  of  Ancient  Philosophers  (Strabo,  <tc.)  on  the  Fossils 
then  known. — Evidence  of  crossing  Currents. — Alternating  Layers 
of  Fresh  Water,  and  Marine  Deposits  of  different  Ages. — No  indu- 
bitable Traces  of  the  Action  of  Noah's  Flood  yet  found. — Change  in 
the  Views  of  Christian  Geologists. — Buckland,  Sedgwick,  <tc. — 
Direction  of  Currents. — Boulders. — Alterations  of  Level  in  Land 
and  Sea. — Temple  of  Jupiter  Serapis,  near  Naples. — Views  of  Dr. 
Fleming 889 


LECTURE  XI. 

THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.      PART  II. 

Reeapitulation.  —  Mosaic  Doctrine. — Deluge  universal.  —  Objections 
against  its  Universality. — On  Scientific  Grounds. — Quantity  of 
Water  needed. — Subterranean  Oceans. — Increased  Weight  of  Earth. 
— Disturb  whole  Solar  System. — Deluge  a  Miracle. — Sinking  of  old 
Continents,  upheaval  of  old  Ocean's  Beds. — Lands  now  rising. — 
Others  sinking. — Laws  of  Nature  not  uniform  in  all  Ages ;  in  the 
sense  of  Lyell. — The  Uniformity  includes  Exceptions. — Garden  of 
Eden. — Site  not  ascertained  on  any  Theory. — Human  Remains  Ante- 
diluvian not  found. — Because  all  now  beneath  the  deep  Sea. — Rapid 
Vegetation  after  Flood. — Olive  Leaf — Noah's  Vineyard, — Expla- 
nation of  this. — Alleged  Incapacity  of  the  Ark  to  contain  all  the 


CONTENTS.  XVU 

PAOB 

Animals. — Difficulty  of  Animals  from  remotest  Regions  all  living 
in  one  Climate  so  long. — Dispersion  of  the  Animals  to  their  respec- 
tive Climates. — Destruction  of  all  Fresh  Water  Animals  in  such  a 
Deluge. — Objection  to  the  Universality  of  the  Deluge. — From  the 
great  Age  of  certain  Trees. — From  Appearances  presented  in  certain 
Volcanic  Regions  in  France,  Sicily  and  Asia  Minor. — Solution  of 
these  Difficulties. — Impossible  Descent  of  Animals,  &c.,  from  Mount 
Ararat. — Monuments  of  the  East,  chiefly  of  Egypt,  said  to  be  many 
Centuries  older  than  the  Epoch  of  Noah's  Deluge. — Brief  Solution 
of  this  Difficulty. — Discoveries  of  Mr.  R.  S.  Poole  in  Egyptian 
Archaeology  and  Chronology. — Possible  Future  Upheaval  of  Antedi- 
luvian Cities,  and  of  Nimrod's  Battle-grounds    .    .    .    .0.    .    .    .381 


LECTUEE  XII. 

MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

All  the  Races  of  Men  the  Descendants  of  one  Primitive  Stock. — Diver- 
sity of  Origin  claimed  for  the  different  Races,  especially  the  Negro. 
— Theory  of  Professor  Agassiz. — His  Reasoning. — His  Explanation 
of  the  Terra  unity. — Of  the  Phrase,  all  made  of  one  blood. — Objec- 
tions to  his  Theory. — Contrary  to  Scripture. — Against  the  Testimony 
of  Philological  Facts. — Philology  Agassiz  rejects  as  irrelevant. — 
General  Arguments  on  both  Sides. — Argument  for  distinct  Origin  of 
the  Negro,  particularly. — Polygamy  among  the  dark  Races. — Pro- 
fessor   Agassiz's   Argument. — Objections   to  his   Theory  and   his 

Reasoning. — His  Reasoning  based  on  Assumption. The  Mode  of  hia 

Argument  is  inconsistent  with  his  avowed  Principles. — His  Theory 
imperfect  and  inconsistent  with  itself,  as  the  one  Type,  the  Abori- 
ginal Indian,  spread  over  the  vast  Extent  of  America,  shows. — Adap- 
tation of  different  Races  to  their  Localities  designed  of  God. — The 
origin  of  Man  and  Animals  beyond  the  Reach  of  mere  Science. — 
Testimony  of  Johan.  Miiller. — Man  differs  from  Animals  much  in 
Origin  also. — If  the  Creator  reveal  not  Origin  it  must  be  ever  hid. — 
Teaching  of  the  Bible. — Old  Testament  and  New. — For  the  present 
Diversity  in  Descendants  from  one  common  Stock  the  Bible  accounts. 
— Law  to  produce  this  Change  impressed  on  Human  Constitution 
at  Babel ;  at  Confusion  of  Tongues. — This  Argued. — Challenge  of 


XVUl  CONTENTS. 

PAOC 

Agassiz  met. — Analogy  shows  Change  once  made  is  permanent. — 
This  Change  before  Historical  Times. — This  View- accounts  for  all 
Facts,  explains  all  Difficulties,  consistent  with  all  Bible  Doctrines. — 
Incidental  Evidence  hence  arising  for  Truth  of  Mosaic  Books. — 
Antiquity  of  Negro  Race  from  Egyptian  Monuments,  but  the  old 
Egyptians  not  Negroes. — Characteristics  of  Human  Races  do  not 
prove  them  distinct  Species. — Mixed  Races  and  their  Fertility  show 
this. — Man  an  Anomaly  in  the  Animal  World. — Cannot  reason  from 
an  anomalous  Case  to  other  ordmary  Cases. — Analogous  Changes  in 
Lower  Animals  yield  no  valid  Argument. — Nor  alledged  Inferiority 
of  Intellect  in  the  Dark  Races. — Case  of  Egyptians  examined — 
Instances  of  Negro  Intelligence  met  with  by  the  Author. — Adapted- 
ness  of  Religion  to  all  Races  Evidence  of  this  essential  Unity. — Chris- 
tian Missions. — The  Traditions  prevailmg  among  Men  of  all  Races 
and  all  Countries  respecting  a  Deluge,  and  their  Descent  from  the 
one  Family  alone  surviving  that  Event,  bespeak  a  common  Origin. — 
This  Point  argued. — Evidence  of  early  Civilization  in  all  Countries 
argues  a  common  Origin. — A  Comparison  of  Language  gives  Evi- 
dence equal  to  Demonstration,  of  a  common  Origin. — Recapitulation 
of  the  whole  Argument 408 


APPENDIX. 

Indebtedness  of  Modern  Literature  to  the  Bible 51*7 

List  of  Authors  referred  to  in  this  Work 648 


ftrSIVBRSIT 

INTEODUCTION. 


"The  Bible,"  (said  that  great  oriental  scholar,  Sir 
William  Jones,)  "contains  more  sublimity,  more  ex- 
quisite beauty,  more  pure  morality,  more  important  his- 
tory, and  finer  strains  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  than  can 
be  collected  from  all  other  books — in  whatever  age  or 
language  they  may  be  written  !" 

•'The  Bible,"  (said  that  masterly  genius  of  modern 
eloquence,  Patrick  Henry,)  "  is  a  book  worth  more  than 
all  other  books  that  were  ever  printed," 

Of  this  wonderful  book,  that  clear  and  logical  rea- 
soner,  John  Locke,  has  said,  "  It  has  God  for  its  author, 
salvation  for  its  end,  and  truth,  without  any  mixture  of 
error,  for  its  matter." 

And  yet,  against  the  authority  of  this  best  of  all  books, 
attacks  have  been  made,  again  and  again,  with  deter- 
mined and  often  with  bitter  hostility.  To  these  several 
attacks,  numerous,  and  often  masterly  replies  have  been 
published. 

But  within  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years,  fresh  at- 
tacks have  been  made,  on  various  grounds  ;  chiefly 
scientific. 

Astronomy,  geology,  physiology  and  ethnology,  have 
all  been  arrayed  against  the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  and 


viii  INTRODUCTION. 

especially  against  the  Pentateuch,  the  first  ^ve  books 
of  the  Jewish  Scripture,  and  which  are  generally  as- 
cribed to  Moses  as  their  author.  The  historical  records 
of  several  ancient  oriental  nations,  and  especially  the 
records  still  found  among  the  monuments  of  Egypt, 
whose  numerous  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  we  can  now 
decipher,  have  been  ostentatiously  paraded  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  books  of  Moses;  and  men  of  note  in  the 
learned  world  have  not  been  wanting  who  maintained 
that  these  records,  together  with  certain  astronomical 
tables  found  in  the  East,  prove  conclusively,  that  the 
chronology  of  the  Pentateuch  is  completely  worthless, 
its  historic  statements  are  entitled  to  no  credit,  and  that 
the  book  of  Genesis  especially,  is  nothing  more  than  a 
collection  of  old  traditionary  tales,  and  mythical  repre- 
sentations, of  no  historical  value  whatever. 

These  are  very  strong  averments;  they  have  been 
very  boldly  and  very  confidently  put  forth,  and  they 
are  calculated  to  shake  the  faith  of  the  unsuspecting,  in 
the  truth  of  holy  writ.  The  confidence  with  which  the 
assault  is  made,  the  appearance  of  learned  research 
presented  in  the  writings  of  those  who  thus  attack, 
and  the  very  nature  of  the  materials  constituting  the 
weapons  of  assault — very  learned  oriental  documents 
claiming  a  monstrous  antiquity,  and  the  interpreted 
hieroglyphics  of  the  old  Pharaonic  dynasties,  still  legible 
in  the  halls  of  their  palaces,  the  courts  of  their  temples, 
and  the  chambers  of  their  tombs,  still  found  over  the 
whole  extent  of  the  Nile  valley,  and  other  ancient 
works  and  inscriptions  met  with  occasionally  in  Arabia 
and  other  eastern  lands;  and, when  declared  under  the 
sanction  of  names  justly  honored  in  the  learned  world 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 

for  patient  industry,  and  extensive  erudition,  to  be  de- 
monstrative of  the  inaccuracy  of  the  Mosaic  record  as 
we  have  it,  all  this  cannot  but  make  a  deep  impression 
on  many  a  mind. 

The  poison  has  sunk  into  many  a  breast,  which  the 
antidote  will  never  reach.  The  object  proposed  to  him- 
self by  the  writer  of  the  following  essays,  is  to  examine 
this  poison,  and  neutralize  its  power.  The  result  of  his 
labors  in  this  wide  department  of  inquiry,  is  here  given 
to  the  public,  and  is  commended  especially  to  the  in- 
telligent seeker  after  Pruth^  with  the  request  that  these 
pages  be  attentively  perused,  and  the  facts  and  reason- 
ings, and  authorities  herein  adduced,  be  imjpartially 
weighed.  Truth  is  the  sole  object  aimed  at  by  the 
writer,  and  if  by  the  reader  the  truth  be  sought,  the 
result  is  not  doubtful. 

The  Bible  has  successfully  sustained  too  many  as- 
saults, from  almost  every  quarter,  and  from  opponents 
furnished  with,  every  degree  of  talent,  and  every  variety 
of  learning,  for  its  friends  to  feel  any  solicitude  as  to  the 
final  issue  now. 

Troops  of  assailants  in  the  last  century,  including 
every  grade  of  intellectual  qualiiication,  from  Paine, 
Yolney,  Yoltaire,  to  Hobbs,  Bolingbroke,  Hume,  and 
Gibbon,  and  a  host  of  continental  writers,  tried  the 
temper  of  their  weapons  against  the  citadel  of  revealed 
truth,  and  a  host  of  defenders,  as  Campbell,  Erskine, 
West,  Butler,  Paley,  &c.,  arose  to  show  how  strong  are 
the  bulwarks,  how  impregnable  the  defences  of  that 
glorious  citadel. 

The  grounds  of  assault  are  now  changed,  and  critical 
ingenuity  questions  the  genuineness  of  the  sacred  books. 


.^  INTRODUCTION. 

and  scientific  discovery  is  arrayed  in  opposition  to  the 
Bible-recorded  facts,  and  archaeological  research  is  as- 
sumed to  furnish  proof  conclusive,  that  the  early  his- 
tory of  the  Bible  is  radically  defective.  The  coarse 
abuse  of  Paine  is  rejected,  the  sneering  insinuations  of 
Gibbon  are  silenced,  the  subtle  sophistry  of  Hume  is 
abandoned ;  but  we  are  told  of  the  facts  of  geology,  of 
the  wonderful  revealments  in  the  heavenly  expanse,  of 
the  demonstrated  verities  of  physiological  science,  and 
of  anatomical  investigation, — we  are  told  of  the  authen- 
ticated records  of  India  and  of  China,  running  back 
many  ages  beyond  any  probable  date  of  Noah's  flood, — 
and  we  are  told  of  the  certain  results  of  the  discoveries 
of  Lepsius  in  Egypt,  as  all  uniting  their  evidence  to 
confute  Moses,  and  to  throw  utter  discredit  on  the  his- 
toric portion  of  the  Pentateuch. 

But,  to  use  the  language  of  the  profound  Butler,  (see 
his  Analogy,  part  2,  ch.  8,)  "  the  truth  of  our  religion, 
like  the  truth  of  all  common  matters,  is  to  be  judged  of 
by  all  the  evidence  taken  together.  And  unless  the 
whole  series  of  things  which  may  be  alleged  in  the  ar- 
gument, and  every  particular  thing  in  it,  can  reasonably 
be  supposed  to  have  been  by  accident,  then  is  the 
truth  of  it  proved.  It  is  obvious  how  much  advantage 
the  nature  of  this  evidence  gives  to  those  who  attack 
Christianity,  especially  in  conversation.  For  it  is  easy 
to  show,  in  a  short  and  lively  manner,  that  such  and 
such  things  in  the  Bible  are  liable  to  objection  ;  but  it 
is  impossible  to  show,  in  like  manner,  the  united  force 
of  the  whole  argument  in  one  view." 

"Most  absurdly  premature  it  is,  then,"  (says  a  judi- 
cious writer  in  the  Edinburgh  Keview  for  Oct.  1849, 


INTEODUCTION.  XI 

p.  182,)  "  to  raise  a  paean  over  the  fall  of  Christianity,  or 
of  any  one  of  its  essential  doctrines,  upon  every  new 
attack  upon  it,  when  it  has  already  withstood  so  many, 
from  the  time  of  Julian  to  Bolingbroke,  and  from  Boling- 
broke  to  Strauss." 

"  The  only  question  fairly  at  issue,  must  ever  be, — 
whether  the  general  evidence  for  the  Bible  will  over- 
bear the  difficulties  which  we  cannot  separate  from  its 
truths  : — if  it  will  not^  we  must  reject  it  wholly  ^  if  it 
will^  we  must  receive  it  wholly:  there  is  plainly  no 
middle  ground  between  absolute  infidelity  and  abso- 
lute belief !"  (id.  p.  182.) 

True,  there  are  still  difficulties,  and  some  of  them  of 
grave  import,  attending  the  reception  of  the  entire  vol- 
ume of  Revelation  ;  but  the  question  always  recurs,  do 
these  difficulties  overbalance  the  mass  of  evidence  in  its 
favor  ?  An  intelligent  and  candid  inquirer  must  answer, 
unhesitatingly,  assuredly  they  do  not : — the  evidence  in 
favor  of  the  divine  origin  of  the  Bible  preponderates  de- 
cidedly and  vastly.  "  N'or  must  we  overlook  the  fact, 
that  these  difficulties  are  susceptible  of  indefinite  alle- 
viation as  time  rolls  onP  The  believer  in  the  plenary 
inspiration  of  all  the  canonical  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  of  the  New,  (Genesis  included,)  may  wait 
with  calmness  the  progress  of  events,  "  assured,  that,  as 
in  so  many  past  instances  of  premature  triumph  on  the 
part  of  the  deriders  of  such  inspiration,  the  very  ground 
which  these  deniers  now  occupy  will  one  day  be  his 
own ;  and  the  very  discoveries,  apparently  hostile,  of 
science,  of  philosophy,  and  of  archaeology,  will  be  ulti- 
mately found  elements  of  the  strength  of  his  cause," 
(id.  p,  184-187.)     Eevelation,  therefore,  has  nothing  to 


xii  INTRODUCTION. 

fear,  but  much  to  hope  from  the  labors  of  the  learned, 
and  the  discoveries  of  science. 

Advances  in  science  may  enable  us  the  better  to  un- 
derstand, and  the  more  correctly  to  interpret  the  sacred 
volume ;  but  shake  our  confidence  in  it — neiier  ! 

Present  me,  to-morrow,  with  some  discovery  of  unde- 
niable facts  that  seem  to  be  really  and  directly  hostile 
to  some  statements  found  in  the  Bible,  and  I  will  still 
say — "  The  facts  I  admit^  and  the  statements  of  the 
Bible  I  still  believe.  There  is^  I  confess^  an  apparent 
contrariety.  In  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge^  1 
see  not  how  to  reconcile  the  two.  But  wait.  Time  and 
advancing  knowledge  will  yet  bring  to  light  other  truths 
which  shall  yet  show  the  perfect  consistency  of  what.,  at 
present.,  seem  to  be  irreconcilahly  contradictoinj  posi- 
tions. Either  the  alleged  facts  are  misapprehended 
and  misapplied,*  as  in  the  layers  of  alternating  beds 

*  A  singular  illustration  of  this  was  furnished  by  the  pseans  of  triumph 
with  which  all  Europe  resounded  about  thirty  years  since,  over  the  mys- 
terious paintings  found  on  the  ceiling  of  a  temple  at  Denderah,  in  Upper 
Egypt.  These  paintings  were  apparently  astronomical,  and  are  still 
known  as  the  Zodiacs  of  Denderah,  &c,  (See  in  Egypte^  by  Champol- 
lion  Figeae,  plate  11,  and  p.  107-110;  also  Monumens  de  I'Egyple  et  de 
NvMe,  Champollion,  vol.  iv.  of  plates  and  plate  804,  bis  et  ter.  See  also 
Bioti,  Recherchcs,  &c.) 

These  paintings,  it  was  at  first  taken  for  granted,  represented  the  state 
of  the  heavens  at  the  time  the  temple  was  built.  The  most  extravagant 
ideas  of  the  antiquity  of  these  pictorial  monuments  were  advanced. 
Some  pronounced  them  3,000,  some  4,000.  and  others  even  7,000  years 
old. 

Somewhat  similar  representations  were  found  delineated  in  two  temples 
at  Esneh.  At  length  patient  research  brought  to  light  the  fact,  that  the 
smaller  temple  at  Esneh,  pronounced  by  some  to  be  two  or  three  thou- 
sand years  anterior  to  Christ,  was  built,  and  the  paintings  had  been  exe- 
cuted by  two  Egyptians,  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  Roman  Emperor  Anto- 


INTRODUCTION.  XUl 

of  lava  with  superincumbent  soil,  noticed  by  Brydone 
in  Sicily,  or  we  misinterpret  the  statements  of  the 
Scripture,  and  substitute  our  inferences  for  its  actual 
teachings ;  as  did  the  ecclesiastics  of  former  days,  who 
condemned  as  heretical  the  doctrine  of  Galileo,  that 
the  sun  is  stationary  in  the  centre  of  our  system,  with 
the  earth  and  the  planets  revolving  round  him,  instead 
of  the  sun  moving  round  the  earth,  which  those  eccle- 
siastics did  verily  swppose  the  Bible  taught." 

No  one  now  dreams  of  objecting  these  facts  presented 
in  the  first  principles  of  astronomic  science  against  the 
truth  of  the  Bible  on  account  of  its  phraseology,  which  is 
the  current  phraseology  of  society  on  these  subjects,  and 
adapted  to  popular  comprehension.  If,  then,  we  are  told 
that  scientific  discovery  compels  us  to  modify  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Bible,  we  answer — This  assertion  contains  a 
misrepresentation.  Extending  knowledge  may  enable 
us  the  better  to  understand  the  statements  found  in  the 

nius,  i.e.  A.D.  147 ;  while  a  Greek  inscription  over  the  portico  of  the  tem- 
ple at  Denderah  declared  it  to  have  been  dedicated  to  the  safety  of  the 
Emperor  Tiberius.  "  Ainsi  done  (adds  Champollion  Figeae,  Egypte,  p, 
110,)  I'antiquite  du  pronaos  d'Esneh  est  incontestablement  fixee :  sa  con- 
struction ne  remonte  pas  au-dela  de  I'erapereur  Claude :  ses  sculptures 
descendent  jusqu'a  Caracalla,  et  du  nombre  de  celles-ci  est  le  fameux 
zodiaque  dont  on  a  tant  i)a.Y\6."— Egypte,  p.  110. 

In  like  manner,  certain  inscriptions  discovered  on  a  mummy,  at  Thebes, 
much  like  the  zodiac  at  Denderah,  were  found  to  be  astrological  tables, 
respecting  the  destiny  of  the  person  whose  body  the  mummy  was,  and 
jwt  astronomical  tables  at  all.  The  parentage  and  name  of  the  person 
were  mentioned,  his  birth,  Jan.  12,  A.D.  95 ;  his  death,  June  2d,  A.D, 
106.  And  yet,  for  this  mummy  and  the  inscription  thereon  found,  an  an- 
tiquity of  five  or  six  thousand  years  had  been  claimed.  Thus  ended  the 
dazzling  visions  of  high  antiquity  to  Egypt,  and  the  consequent  refuta- 
tion of  the  Mosaic  chronology,  based  on  the  discoveries  made  at  Dende- 
rah, Esneh,  and  Thebes. 


xiv  INTRODUCTION. 

Bible,  and  thus  to  modify  our  interpretation  of  its  doc- 
trines, and  render  us  more  accurate  and  more  strictly 
Scriptural;  but  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  still  stand 
there,  unaltered,  as  at  first. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  manner  of  weight  attending 
the  charge  as  thus  put  forth  by  a  living  writer.  (See 
Two  Lectures,  &c.,  by  Dr.  J.  C.  K.,  p.  T.)  "  There  is 
unceasing  change  in  religious  doctrines.  What  are  re- 
garded in  one  age  as  essential  parts  of  our  Bible,  are, 
in  another,  repudiated  as  spuriotis,  and  one  reading 
after  another  recedes  as  science  advances?'' 

In  a  modified  sense  this  must  always  be  true.  In- 
creasing knowledge  will  enable  a  man  to  obtain  a  better 
understanding  of  almost  any  document.  Critical  acu- 
men, and  the  collation  of  ancient  manuscripts,  old  ver- 
sions, and  difi*erent  copies,  may  lead  to  the  improvement 
of  the  text  by  the  emendation  of  here  and  there  a  trivial 
error.  The  various  emendations  so  much  talked  of, 
rarely,  we  may  say  never,  touch  any  vital  doctrine  or 
statement.  While  every  advance  we  make  in  acquaint- 
ance with  the  history,  the  antiquities,  the  writings,  the 
works  of  art,  and  with  the  manners  and  customs  of  an- 
cient nations  furnishes  us  the  means  for  eliciting  a  fuller 
and  clearer  meaning  from  the  language  of  the  Bible, 
as  of  any  other  ancient  document. 

In  actual  life  this  is  often  exemplified.  You  receive  a 
communication  from  a  distant  correspondent.  From 
the  first  its  statements  are  sufficiently  intelligible  for 
all  the  purposes  of  practical  utility.  But  if  afterwards 
you  visit  the  place  where  the  document  was  written, 
and  make  yourself  acquainted  with  the  various  facts  as 
to  localities,  persons,  and  prevailing  customs,  which 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

were,  indeed,  not  expressly  mentioned  in  the  document, 
nor  even  directly  alluded  to  ;  but  which,  entirely  famil- 
iar to  the  writer,  influenced  his  mind,  and  modified 
his  phraseology, — then  the  statements  contained  in  that 
document,  you  can  better  understand ;  a  meaning  be- 
fore latent,  in  many  a  phrase  therein,  becomes  now 
obvious.  Yet  the  document  itself  remains  as  before  it 
was,  unaltered  and  the  same :  the  only  diflerence  is, 
you  are  now  qualified  the  more  accurately  to  explain  it. 
In  our  courts  of  law,  for  the  right  interpretation  given 
to  testamentary  documents,  the  importance  of  a  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  the  opinions,  circumstances,  and 
habits  of  the  testator,  is  fully  appreciated ;  and  every 
scholar  is  aware  of  the  absolute  necessity  for  a  knowl- 
edge of  ancient  customs  and  ancient  localities,  to  a 
due  understanding  of  the  ancient  classical  writings. 

The  fact,  then,  that  an  ancient  document  conveys 
different  ideas  to  the  man  whose  knowledge  is  enlarged, 
various  and  accurate,  from  those  which  one  less  accom- 
plished gleans  from  it,  is  evidence  rather  of  its  genuine- 
ness than  otherwise. 

So  we  may  aver,  that  what  little  light  modern  science 
throws  upon  this  subject,  rather  tends  to  confirm  than 
to  detract  from  the  authority  of  the  sacred  narrative. 

However  superior  to  us  the  ancient  Egyptians  may 
have  been  in  architecture,  in  some  branches  of  mechan- 
ics, and  of  the  fine  arts,  yet  we  have  no  reason  to 
imagine  that  they,  or  that  Moses  himself,  could  have 
had  the  remotest  idea  of  the  great  truths  of  geology, 
or  of  those  embraced  in  other  branches  of  modern 
Bcience. 

The  fact,  then,  that  in  recording  with  unprecedented 


Xvi  INTRODUCTION. 

brevity,  the  circumstances  attending  the  creation  of 
man,  and  the  preparation  of  this  earth  to  become  the 
place  of  man's  abode,  Moses  has  so  expressed  himself, 
that,  as  science  extends  her  researches  and  multiplies 
her  discoveries,  his  ancient  record,  so  far  from  offering 
absurdities  and  contradictions,  becomes  only  the  plainer, 
the  more  intelligible,  and  the  more  evidently  probable, 
can  be  accounted  for  on  no  other  ground,  than  that 
Moses  was  inspired  by  the  All-wise  Maker  of  the  world, 
to  write  his  history  in  the  words  of  immutable  Truth. 
Modern  science  shows,  conclusively,  that  the  opening 
part,  at  least,  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  must  have  been 
the  dictate  of  unerring  wisdom  ! 

Plainly,  now,  if  the  Bible  be  given  by  inspiration 
from  God,  we  must  receive  its  teachings  just  as  they 
are  given  to  us.  This  the  rationalistic  critics  of  Germany 
do  not.  "  So  long  as  the  canonicity  of  any  of  the  records 
of  Scripture,  or  any  portion  of  them,  or  so  long  as  the 
true  interpretation  of  them  is  in  dispute,  we  may  fairly 
doubt ;  but,  that  point  once  decided  by  honest  criticism, 
to  say  we  receive  such  and  such  portions  on  account  of 
the  weight  of  the  general  evidence,  and  yet  reject  other 
portions,  though  sustained  hy  the  same  evidence^  because 
we  think  there  is  something  unreasonable,  or  revolting 
in  their  substance,  is  plainly  to  accept  evidence  only 
where  it  pleases  us.,  and  to  reject  it  where  it  pleases  us 
not."— ^6?m.  Rev.,  Oct.  1849,  p.  182. 

It  is  then  my  sincere  and  deliberate  conviction,  that 
the  authority  of  any  one  book  in  the  Bible  being  once 
admitted,  after  a  careful  examination  of  its  claims  to 
inspiration,  then,  forthwith,  and  unconditionally,  we  are 
bound  to  surrender  our  judgment  to  its  teachings. 


INTRODUCTION.  XVll 

This  is  demanded  alike  by  common  honesty,  sound 
sense,  and  true  philosophy.  In  reference  to  the  Bible, 
claiming,  as  it  does,  to  be  a  revelation  from  God,  there 
is,  and  there  can  be  no  middle  ground,  between  abso- 
lute infidelity  and  absolute  belief. 

And  yet  the  learned  rationalistic  expositors  of  the 
Bible,  that  have  appeared  in  Germany,  aim  to  hold  this 
middle  ground.  Though  called  theologians,  they  treat 
the  Bible  just  as  they  would  any  of  the  profane  classics, 
deny  all  miracles,  and  explain  away  all  the  supernatural 
events  therein  recorded,  by  the  agency  of  natural 
causes.  As  their  writings  are  often  referred  to,  and 
their  opinions  quoted  as  authoritative,  and  absolutely 
decisive,  by  many  of  the  modern  assailants  of  the  Bible, 
it  may  be  not  inappropriate  to  give  here  a  brief  sketch 
of  the  opinions  and  the  works  of  the  chief  among  these 
German  rationalistic  expositors  of  the  Bible.  Thus,  it 
has  been  recently  proclaimed  to  the  American  public, 
that  "  it  is  in  Germany  that  philosophy,  archaDology, 
and  all  those  studies  which  form  the  ground-work  of 
biblical  criticism  have  been  most  advanced  ;  and  this  is 
the  fatherland  of  Luther,  Gesenius,  Ewald,  Eichhorn, 
Hautman,  Gabler,  the  Rosen miillers,  De  Wette,  Strauss, 
and  other  commentators,  who  have  no  equals  in  Eng- 
land or  America.  It  is  men  of  this  stamp,  and  such 
men  as  Channing,  Norton,  Parker,  Palfrey,  &c.,  of 
I^ew  England,  who  alone  jpossess  the  Tcnowledge  requi- 
site for  deciding  such  questions^  that  dare  to  teach 
that  the  Bible  manuscripts  have  not  come  down  to  us 
untarnished  by  human  hands  ;  and  that  the  Penta- 
teuch is  an  anonymous  jproduction^  of  unknown  origin^ 
compiled  many  centuries  after  the  time  of  Moses^  and 


>^  OP  THJ?^^^ 

UFI7BIISIT 


Xviii  INTRODUCTION. 

consequently  of  no  authority  in  settling  questions  of 
science.     (See  Tivo  Lectures.,  dsc..,  p.  18.) 

Who  then  are  these  men,  Eichhorn,  De  Wette, 
Strauss,  &c.  &c.,  thus  recommended  as  the  only  com- 
petent judges,  the  only  tmstworthy  expositors  of  holy 
writ? 

They  are,  for  the  most  part,  German  writers,  whose 
works  profess  to  be  introductory  to,  or  expository  of  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  or  some  portions  of  them. 

Johannes  G.  Eichhom  was  bom  about  the  middle  of 
the  last  century,  and,  by  his  numerous  writings,  he  ob- 
tained great  celebrity  as  an  Oriental  scholar,  a  histo- 
rian, and  a  biblical  critic.  He  was  professor  in  the 
university  of  Jena,  and  afterwards  in  that  of  Gottingen. 
His  "Introduction  to  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament," 
is  replete  with  the  fruits  of  learned  research,  and  is  still 
valuable.  It  has  gone  through  several  editions.  But, 
learned  though  he  was,  and  acute  in  his  criticisms,  Eich- 
horn  was  a  decided  rationalist.  Yet  still  Eichhorn  em- 
phatically maintained  the  Mosaic  origin  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, Genesis  included. 

Dr.  Strauss,  the  latest  of  these  writers,  and  still 
living,  blames  Eichhorn,  in  that  he  but  half  adopted 
the  rationalistic  view ;  since  he  found  no  difficulty  in 
admitting  suppositions  which,  in  Dr.  Strauss's  esteem, 
are  most  unnatural,  as,  e.  g.  that  "  the  Pentateuch  was 
written  during  the  passage  through  the  wilderness," 
i.  e.  it  was  written  by  Moses.  And  certainly,  if  wi-it- 
ten  by  Moses,  it  must  have  been  written  during  the 
passage  through  the  wilderness,  since  it  records  the 
events  which  occurred  before,  and  during  that  passage ; 
and  since,  also,  when  Israel  crossed  the  Jordan,  and 


INTRODUCTION.  XIK 

entered  Canaan,  Moses  was  dead.  See  Strauss's  In- 
troduction to  his  "  Life  of  Jesus y''  vol.  i.  p.  20. 

Strauss  is  certainly  a  competent  judge  of  the  senti- 
ments of  his  distinguished  countrymen,  and  predeces- 
sors in  biblical  criticism.  He  thus  writes  of  Eichhorn, 
of  Dr.  Paulus,  De  Wette,  &c.  See  the  "  Introduction^'' 
p.  15,  &c.  &c. 

"  Eichhorn,  in  his  critical  examination  of  the  Frag- 
ments,* agrees  with  the  Fragmentists  in  refusing  to 
recognize  an  immediate  divine  agency,  at  all  events, 
in  the  narratives  of  early  date.  The  mythological  re-: 
searches  of  a  Heyne  had  so  far  enlarged  the  circle  of 
vision  as  to  lead  Eichhorn  to  perceive  that,  '  divine  in- 
terpositions must  he  alike  admitted^  or  alike  denied^  in 
the  primitive  histories  qf  all  people. "^  It  was  the  prac- 
tice of  all  nations, — of  the  Grecians  as  well  as  the  Ori- 
entals,— to  refer  every  unexjDected  or  inexplicable  oc- 
currence, immediately  to  the  Deity.  The  sages  of  an- 
tiquity lived  in  continual  communion  with  superior 
intelligences. 

"Whilst  these  representations,  (such  is  Eichhorn's 
statement  of  the  matter,)  are  always,  in  reference  to 
the  Hebrew  records,  understood  verbally  and  literally, 
it  has  hitherto  been  customary  to  explain  similar  repre- 
sentations in  the  pagan  histories,  by  presupposing  either 
deception  and  gross  falsehood,  or  the  misinterpretation 
and  corruption  of  tradition.     But  Eichhorn  thinks  ^'^^,9- 

*  These  are  a  collection  of  Essays  published  in  Germany  by  Sessung, 
in  1774,  presenting  the  grossest  Deistical  arguments  against  revealed  re- 
ligion, against  the  books  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  denouncing 
the  men  honored  in  Scripture,  as  base  and  unworthy,  denouncing  the 
doctrines  and  the  laws  laid  down  in  Scripture,  as  barbarous  and  unwor- 
thy of  God,  and  denouncing  the  miracles  as  absurd  and  incredible. 


3iiy  INTRODUCTION. 

tice  evidently  requires  that  Hebrew  mid  pagan  histcxry 
should  he  treated  in  the  same  way^  so  that  intercourse 
with  celestial  beings,  during  a  state  of  infancy,  must 
either  be  accorded  to  all  nations^  pagan  and  Hebrew, 
or  equally  denied  to  all." 

Now  surely  this  is  8ufl5ciently  explicit.  The  learned 
Eichhorn,  a  renowned  biblical  critic,  too,  hesitates  not 
to  put  the  supernatural  part  of  the  Mosaic  history,  on 
precisely  the  same  footing  as  the  pagan  mythological 
fables.  On  p.  17,  Dr.  Strauss  thus  proceeds:  "Eich- 
horn is  of  opinion  that  no  objection  can  be  urged 
against  the  attempt  to  resolve  all  the  Mosaic  narratives 
into  natural  occurrences  :"  he  "  agreed  with  the  Natu- 
ralists in  divesting  the  biblical  narratives  of  all  their 
immediately  divine  contents  :  but  he  rejects  the  conclu- 
sion that  Moses  was  an  impostor,  pronouncing  it  over- 
hasty  and  unjust." 

In  conformity  with  these  principles,  Eichhorn  sought 
to  explain  naturally  the  histories  of  Noah,  Abraham, 
Moses,  &c.  Viewed  in  the  light  of  that  age,  the  ap- 
pointment of  Moses  to  be  the  leader  of  the  Israelites, 
was  nothing  more  than  the  long-cherished  project  of 
the  patriot  to  emancipate  his  people  ;  which,  when  pre- 
sented before  his  mind  with  more  than  usual  vividness 
in  his  dreams^  was,  hy  him  believed  to  be  a  di/vine  i/n- 
spiration  / 

The  flames  and  smoke  which  ascended  from  Mount 
Sinai  at  the  giving  of  the  law,  were  merely  a  fire  which 
Moses  kindled  in  order  to  make  a  deeper  impression 
upon  the  imagination  of  the  people,  together  with  an 
accidental  thunder-storm,  which  arose  at  that  particu- 
lar moment.     The  shining  of  his  countenance  was  the 


INTRODUCTION,  XXI 

natural  effect  of  his  being  overheated ;  but  it  was  sup- 
posed to  be  a  divine  manifestation,  not  only  by  the 
people,  but  by  Moses  himself,  he  being  ignorant  of  the 
true  cause. 

In  his  application  of  this  mode  of  interpretation  to 
the  'New  Testament,  Eichhorn  was  more  reserved.  In- 
deed, it  was  only  to  a  few  of  the  narratives  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  such  as  the  miracle  of  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost, the  conversion  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  the 
many  apparitions  of  angels,  that  he  allowed  himself  to 
apply  it.  Here,  too,  he  refers  the  supernatural  to  the 
figurative  language  of  the  Bible,  in  which,  for  example, 
*'  a  happy  accident  is  called  a  protecting  angel,  a  joy- 
ous thought,  the  salutation  of  an  angel,  and  a  peaceful 
state  of  mind,  a  comforting  angel." 

Such  is  the  spirit  pervading  the  hermeneutics  of 
Eichhorn. 

"  But,"  (continues  Dr.  Strauss,)  "  it  was  Dr.  Paulus, 
who,  by  his  commentary  on  the  gospels,  in  1800,  first 
acquired  the  full  reputation  of  a  Christian  Eveme- 
rus.*  In  the  Introduction  to  this  work,  Paulus  states 
it  to  be  the  primary  requisite  to  a  biblical  critic,  to  be 
able  to  distinguish  between  what  is  fact,  and  what  is 
opinion.  That  which  has  been  actually  experienced 
internally  or  externally,  by  the  participants  in  an  event, 
he  csi\ls/aet.     The  interpretation  of  an  event,  the  sup- 

*  So  designated  from  a  learned  writer,  Evemenis,  who  proposed  a  two- 
fold method  of  explaining  the  ancient  pagan  mythology,  representing  the 
deities  of  the  popular  worship  as  good  and  benevolent  men,  the  law- 
givers, and  just  rulers  of  early  times,  whom  popular  gratitude  had  dei- 
fied ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  as  artful  impostors,  and  cruel  tyrants,  who 
had  successfully  imposed  on  popular  credulity,  to  subject  the  masses  to 
their  control ! 


XXll  INTRODUCTION. 

posed  causes  to  which  it  is  referred  by  the  participants, 
or  by  the  narrators,  he  calls  opinion.  But,  according 
to  Dr.  Paulus,  these  two  elements  became  so  easily 
blended  and  confounded  in  the  minds  both  of  the  original 
fiharers  in  an  event,  and  of  the  subsequent  relators  and 
historians,  that  fact  and  opinion  lose  their  distinctions ; 
so  that  the  one  and  the  other,  are  believed  and  recorded 
with  equal  confidence  in  their  historical  truth.  This  in- 
termixture is  particularly  apparent  in  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament.  In  his  commentary,  and  also  in  his 
later  work,  'The  Life  of  Jesus,'  Dr.  Paulus  firmly 
maintains  the  historical  truth  of  the  gospel  narratives, 
and  he  aims  to  weave  them  into  one  consecutive  chron- 
ologically arranged  detail  of  facts ;  but  he  explains 
away  everything  of  immediate  divine  agency  /  a/nd  he 
denies  all  siipematural  intervention.  Jesus,  to  him, 
is  not  the  *  Son  of  God,'  in  the  sense  of  the  Church, 
but  a  wise  and  virtuous  human  being ;  and  the  eftects 
he  produced  a/re  not  m.iracles^  but  acts,  sometimes  of 
benevolence  and  friendship,  sometimes  of  medical  skill, 
and  sometimes,  also,  the  results  of  accident  and  good 
fortune,"  (id.  pp.  18, 19.) 

Eichhorn  agrees  with  Paulus  and  others,  in  consider- 
ing the  mira^culous  in  the  sacred  history  as  a  drapery^ 
which  needs  only  to  be  drawn  aside  in  order  to  disclose 
the  pure  historic  form. 

De  Wette,  also,  who  was  the  most  distinguished  of  all 
the  so-called  liberal  theologians  of  Germany,  rejects 
everything  supernatural  in  the  sacred  books.  He  de- 
clares that  common  sense  decides  a  Tnmacle  to  he  im- 


The  rationalistic  or  natural  mode  of  interpretation 


INTRODUCTION.  XXUl 

employed  by  Eichliorn  and  Paulus,  necessarily  supposes 
a  basis  of  historic  truth  in  the  narrative,  and  that  the 
records  containing  the  narrative,  must  have  originated 
at,  or  near  the  time  when  the  events  occur,  and  have 
originated  from  the  testimony  of  eye  and  ear  witnesses. 
Hence,  Eichhorn  admits  the  Mosaic  origin  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch. 

If  these  records  be  of  later  origin,  and  based  on  less 
original  reports,  what  security  is  there  that  what  is 
taken  for  matter  of  fact,  does  not  belong  to  mere  opinion, 
or  tradition  ? 

The  transition  from  the  rationalistic  to  the  mythical 
interpretation,  is  natural  and  easy.  Semler  had  spoken 
of  "  Jewish  mythology^  and  had  called  the  histories  of 
Samson,  and  of  Esther,  mythi." 

Gabler,  Schelling  and  others,  would  interpret  sacred 
history,  no  less  than  profane,  on  the  mythical  principle, 
according  to  the  axioms  laid  down  by  Heyne.  A  my- 
this^  omnis  primorum  hominum  cum  historia  tumphil- 
osophia^  procedit !  In  1820,  Bauer  published  what  he 
called  a  ''  Hebrew  Mythology  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
ta/mentP  The  earliest  records  of  all  nations  are  mythi- 
cal^ and  why  should  those  of  the  Hebrews  be  the  sole 
exception  ? 

By  this  writer  (Bauer,)  a  narrative  is  deemed  mythical, 
1st.  When  it  proceeds  from  an  age  in  which  were  no 
written  records,  but  events  were  transmitted  by  tradi- 
tion. 

2d.  When  it  presents,  as  historical,  accounts  of  events 
which  were  beyond  the  reach  of  experience ;  as,  e.  g. 
occurrences  connected  with  the  spiritual  world  :  or, 

3d.  When  it  deals  in  the  marvellous,  and  is  couched 


XXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

in  symbolical  language.     Many  such  narratives  occur 
in  the  Bible. 

Wegscheider,  (another  distinguished  liberal  critic,) 
declared  it  impossible  to  rescue  the  Bible  from  the  re- 
proaches and  scoffs  of  its  enemies,  except  by  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  mythi  in  the  sacred  writings,  and  the 
separation  of  their  inherent  meaning,  from  their  unhis- 
toric  form. 

Yater,  another  celebrated  biblical  expositor,  boldly 
declared  that  the  peculiar  character  of  the  narrative  in 
the  Pentateuch  cannot  be  truly  comprehended,  unless 
we  concede,  that  they  are  not  the  production  of  an  eye- 
witness^ but  are  a  series  of  transmitted  traditions." 

But  De  Wette  went  still  further  than  Yater,  and  ad- 
vocated the  mythical  interpretation  of  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  histories.  De  Wette  lays 
down  a  principle  which  effectually  refutes  the  ration- 
alistic mode  of  interpretation.  It  is  this.  "The  only 
means  of  acquaintance  with  a  history  is  tlie  naiTative 
which  we  possess  concerning  it ;  and  beyond  that  narra- 
tive^ the  historian  or  tJie  interpreter  caiinot  go.  In  these 
Bible  records^  the  narrative  reports  to  us  only  a  super- 
natural course  of  events,  which  we  must  either  receive 
or  reject.  If  we  reject  the  narrative,  we  know  nothing 
at  all  about  the  event ;  and  we  are  not  justified  in 
allowing  ourselves  to  invent  a  natural  course  of  events 
of  which  the  narrative  is  totally  silent." 

In  this  position  De  Wette  was  undoubtedly  right,  and 
the  rigid  application  of  this  principle  wholly  anniliilates 
most  of  the  so-called  psychological  interpretations  of 
events  related  in  the  gospel  histories,  as  even  Eichhorn 
saw  and  admitted.     For  example,  the  Naturalist  denies 


INTRODUCTION.  XXV 

God's  covenant  with  Abraham  as  a  historic  fact :  but 
still,  he  maintains,  the  narrative  had  a  historical  basis : 
as,  e.g.^  "Though  no  objective  divine  communication 
took  place,  still  the  occurrence  had  a  subjective  reality 
in  Abraham's  mind,  in  a  dream,  or  in  a  waking  vision. 
In  other  words,  a  natural  thought  was  awakened  in 
Abraham's  bosom,  which,  in  the  spirit  of  the  age,  he 
referred  to  God." 

To  this  point  of  view,  taken  by  the  rationalist,  De 
Wette  very  shrewdly  and  happily  replies,  by  asking 
"  How  he  knows,  that  such  thoughts  arose  in  Abraham's 
mind  ?  The  narrative  refers  them  to  God ;  and  if  we  re- 
ject the  narrative,  we  know  nothing  at  all  about  these 
thoughts  of  Abraham,  and  consequently  cannot  know 
that  they  had  arisen  in  him  naturally."  According  to 
general  experience  such  hopes  as  are  described  in  this 
covenant,  viz.  that  he  should  become  the  father  of  a 
mighty  nation,  which  should  possess  the  land  of  Canaan, 
could  not  have  sprung  up  naturally  in  Abraham's 
mind.  But,  (adds  De  Wette,)  it  is  quite  natural^  that 
the  Israelites,  when  they  had  become  a  numerous  peo- 
ple in  possession  of  that  land,  "  should  invent  the  cove- 
nant^ in  order  to  render  their  ancestor  illustrious  .^" 
Thus,  adds  Dr.  Strauss,  "  the  natural  explanation,  by 
its  own  unnaturalness,  ever  brings  us  back  to  the  mythi- 
cal." 

We  plain  American  Christians  may  add,  that  the 
natural  interpretation  by  its  unnaturalness,  and  the 
mythical  by  its  absurdity,  in  some  instances,  and  by 
its  daring  impiety  in  others,  both  combine  to  drive  us 
back  to  the  supernatural — to  the  plain  old-fashioned 
interpretation,  by  reference  to  miraculous  intervention. 


XXvi  INTRODUCTION. 

On  that  ground,  and  on  that  only,  all  becomes  plain, 
consistent,  and  intelligible.  By  this  mythical  interpre- 
tation of  Bible  narratives  you  may,  indeed,  get  rid  of 
all  chronological  difficulties,  and  of  troublesome  dis- 
crepancies ;  but  you  are  compelled  to  deny  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  books,  and  you  destroy  their  authenticity. 
Thus,  De  Wette,  denying  the  possibility  of  miracles 
and  of  prophecy,  maintains  the  modern  origin  of  the 
Pentateuch,  and  especially  of  the  Book  of  Genesis, 
from  the  miraculous  nature  of  the  events  therein  record- 
ed. He  thus  reasons  :  since  they  record  supernatural 
events,  these  narratives  must  be  myths.  But  to  be 
myths  these  narratives  must  have  originated  in  reports 
that  arose  long  subsequent  to  the  times  to  which  they 
refer.  His  words  are  :  "  Such  accounts  can  only  owe 
their  origin  to  popular  report^  which  must  have  been  of 
very  long  standing,  to  have  become  exaggerated  to 
the  degree  in  which  it  is  given  in  this  book." 

Dr.  Strauss  himself,  who  is  by  some  extolled  as  a  pre- 
eminently able  and  sound  biblical  expositor,  carries  out 
this  principle  of  mythical  interpretation,  with  unsparing 
hand,  and  applies  it  equally  to  the  New  Testament  and 
to  the  Old. 

In  the  Introduction  to  his  celebrated  "  Life  of  Jemis^'* 
Strauss  says,  (vol.  i.  p.  64,)  "  The  fact  is,  the  pure  his- 
toric idea  was  never  developed  among  the  Hebrews, 
during  the  whole  of  their  political  existence."  He 
adds,  "  Indeed,  no  just  notion  of  the  true  nature  of  his- 
tory is  possible^  without  a  perception  of  the  inviolability 
of  the  chain  of  finite  causes,  and  of  the  impossibility  of 
miracles. ^^ — Again,  p.  74,  vol.  i.,  he  says,  "  The  result, 
however  surprising,  of  a  general  examination  of  the 


INTRODUCTION.  XXVll 

biblical  history  is,  that  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  reli- 
gions, like  all  others,  have  their  myths." 

Still  further  to  illustrate  the  views  of  this  writer, 
notice  the  criterion  he  lays  down,  pp.  87,  88,  by  which 
to  distinguish  what  he  calls  the  negative  phrase  of 
myth  in  the  gospel  history,  i.  e.  fable,  or  legend,  which 
is  not  historically  true.  Thus,  "  when  the  narrative  is 
irreconcilable  with  the  known  and  universal  laws  which 
govern  the  course  of  events.  When,  therefore,  we  meet 
with  an  account  of  certain  phenomena  or  events,  of 
whicli  it  is  either  expressly  stated  or  implied,  that  they 
were  produced  immediately  by  God  himself,  (such  as 
divine  apparitions,  voices  from  heaven,  and  the  like,) 
or  by  human  beings  possessed  of  supernatural  powers, 
(miracles,  prophecies,  &c.,)  such  an  account  is,  so  far^ 
to  be  considered  not  historical. '^'^ 

So,  then,  if  Dr.  Strauss  is  to  be  our  guide  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  Bible,  the  covenant  with  Abraham, — 
the  Exodus  of  Israel  from  Egypt, — and  the  history  of 
Israel's  wandering  in  the  desert ; — the  gospel  account 
of  the  annunciation,  by  an  angel,  to  the  blessed  Virgin, 
— that  of  the  miraculous  conception  of  Christ ; — the 
whole  series  of  miracles  ascribed  to  Christ,  and  even 
his  resurrection  from  the  dead,  and  his  ascension  after- 
wards, in  bodily  form,  up  to  heaven,  are  all  to  be  re- 
garded as  myths,  as  mere  fables  and  fictions  that  have 
no  foundation  in  truth.  These  narratives  are  all,  in  Dr. 
Strauss's  view,  utterly  destitute  of  historic  truth. 

"  And  inasmuch,"  continues  he,  "  as,  in  general,  the 
intermingling  of  the  spiritual  world  with  the  human,  is 
found  only  in  unauthentic  records,  and  is  irreconcilable 
with  all  just  conceptions  ;  so  narratives  of  angels  and 


XXviii  INTRODUCTION. 

of  devils,  of  their  appearing  in  human  shape,  and  inter- 
fering with  human  concerns,  cannot  possibly  he  received 
as  historical.''^ 

Of  course  this  critical  axiom  condemns  as  utterly- 
fabulous,  the  history  of  the  deliverance  of  the  three 
Israelites  from  ]S"ebuchadnezzar's  fiery  furnace ;  the 
deliverance  of  Daniel  in  the  lion's  den.  It  repudiates, 
also,  the  vision  of  Zecharias  in  the  temple,  and  his 
dumbness  till  after  the  birth  of  the  Baptist.  It  repudi- 
ates the  history  of  the  temptation  of  Christ,  his  agony 
in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane,  and  the  appearance  of 
angels  at  his  tomb  on  the  morning  of  the  resurrection, 
and  at  his  subsequent  ascension  ! — so  wide-sweeping  is 
the  operation  of  this  one  rule.  Accordingly,  when,  in  the 
body  of  his  work,  Strauss  sets  himself  to  expound  the 
history  of  Christ's  nativity,  he  denies  the  appearance 
of  an  angel  to  Mary,  he  denies  the  miraculous  concep- 
tion of  Christ,  and  he  represents  Jesus  as  the  son  of 
Joseph  and  Mary,  bora  as  any  other  son,  bom  lawfully 
of  his  parents.  Dr.  Strauss  boldly  denies  that  the  gos- 
pel histories  are  the  production  of  eye-witnesses,  or  of 
contemporary  writers  at  all. 

On  p.  56  of  vol.  i.  he  says : — "  This  alleged  ocular  tes- 
timony, or  proximity  in  point  of  time,  of  the  sacred 
historians,  to  the  events  recorded,  is  mere  assumption^ 
an  assumption  originating  in  the  titles  which  Biblical 
books  bear  in  our  canon."  Again,  p.  68,  he  says,  "  The 
external  testimony  respecting  the  composition  of  our 
gospels,  so  far  from  forcing  upon  us  the  conclusion,  that 
they  proceeded  from  eye-witnesses,  or  well-informed 
contemporaries,  leaves  the  decision  to  be  determined 
wholly  by  internal  grounds  of  evidence,  i.  e.  by  the  na- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXIX 

ture  of  the  gospel  narratives  themselves."  Accordingly, 
he  thus  concludes  his  examination  of  the  annunciation 
and  birth  of  John  the  Baptist,  as  given  by  Luke :  "  We 
stand  here  upon  purely  mythical,  poetical  ground  ;  the 
only  historical  reality  which  we  can  hold  fast,  as  posi- 
tive matter  of  fact,  being  this — the  impression  made 
by  John  the  Baptist,  in  virtue  of  his  ministry  and  his 
relation  to  Jesus,  was  so  powerful  as  to  lead  to  the  sub- 
sequent glorification  of  his  hirth^  in  connection  with  the 
birth  of  the  Messiah  in  the  Christian  legend."  (Vol.  i. 
p.  121.) 

In  vol.  i.  p.  193,  Strauss  remarks: — "We  have  no 
ground  for  denying  that  the  mother  of  Jesus  lore  her 
husband  several  other  children^  besides  Jesus,  younger^ 
and  jperhajps^  also^  older  than  Jesus ;  because  the  repre- 
sentation in  the  ITew  Testament,  that  Jesus  was  the 
first-born  son^  may  belong  no  less  to  the  myths  than  the 
representations  given  by  the  early  Fathers,  that  Jesus 
was  an  only  son." 

Eichhorn  had  previously  avowed  the  opinion,  that  our 
four  gospels  in  their  present  form  were  not  in  use,  and 
were  not  known,  till  the  end  of  the  second  century.  Pre- 
vious to  that  time,  it  is  supposed  that  other  gosjpels  werQ 
in  circulation,  allied  to  those  we  possess,  but  not  the 
same.  This  is  substantially  the  opinion  maintained  on 
this  subject  by  Strauss.     (See  pp.  62,  63.) 

For  the  miraculous  events  recorded  in  the  gospel 
biographies  of  Jesus,  Strauss  thus  attempts  to  account : 
"  The  expectation  of  a  Messiah  had  grown  up  among 
the  Israelitish  people  long  before  the  time  of  Jesus,  and 
just  then  it  had  ripened  to  full  maturity."  (Yol.  i.  p.  80.) 
Again,  p.  81,  we  read :  "  Believing  that  Moses  and  all 


XXX  INTRODUCTION. 

the  prophets  had  prophesied  of  the  Messiah,  (see  John 
V.  46,  Luke  iv.  21,  xxiv.  27,)  it  was  natural  for  the  Jews, 
with  their  allegorizing  tendency,  to  consider  their  ac- 
tions and  destiny  {i.  e.  those  of  the  prophets)  as  types 
of  the  Messiah,  so  as  to  take  their  sayings  for  pre- 
dictions.   In  general,  the  whole  Messianic  age  was  ex- 
pected to  be  full  of  signs  and  wonders.    The  eyes  of 
the  blind  should  be  opened,  the  ears  of  the  deaf  should 
be  unclosed,  thfe  lame  should  leap,  and  the  tongue  of 
the  dumb  praise  God,  (Isa.  xxxv.  5,  xlii.  7,  comp.  xxxii. 
8,  4.)    These,  merely  figurative  expressions,  soon  came 
to  be  understood  literally  (Matt.  xi.  5,  Luke  vii.  21,  c^c.)  ; 
and  thus  the  idea  of  the  Messiah  was  continually  filling 
up  with  details,  even  before  the  appearance  of  Jesus. 
Thus  many  of  the  legends  respecting  him  had  not  to 
be  newly  invented  :  they  already  existed  in  the  popular 
hope  of  the  Messiah,  having  been  mostly  derived,  with 
various  modifications,  from  the  Old  Testament ;  and  they 
had  merely  to  be  transferred  to  Jesus,  and  accommo- 
dated to  his  character  and  doctrines.     In  no  case  could 
it  be  easier  for  the  person  who  first  added  any  new 
feature  to  the  description  of  Jesus,  to  believe  himself 
its  genuineness,  since  his  argument  would  be,  Jesus 
was  the  Messiah^  therefore^  such  and  such  things  hap- 
pened to  himP     "Besides,"  adds  Strauss,  "we  must 
take  into  account  the  overwhelming  impression  which 
was  made  upon  those  around  him  by  the  personal  char- 
acter and  discourse  of  Jesus  as  long  as  he  lived  among 
them,  which  did  not  suifer  them  deliberately  to  scruti- 
nize and  compare  him  with  their  previous  standard. 
The  belief  in  him  as  the  Messiah  extended  to  wider 
circles  only  hy  slow  degrees^  and  even  during  his  life- 


INTKODUCTION.  XXXI 

time  the  people  may  have  reported  many  wonderful 
stories  about  him,  (Matt.  xiv.  2.)  After  his  death,  the 
belief  in  his  resurrection,  however  that  belief  may 
HAVE  ARISEN,  afforded  a  more  than  sufficient  proof  of 
his  Messiahship,  so  that  all  the  other  miracles  in  his  his- 
tory, need  not  be  considered  as  the  foundation  of  the 
faith  in  this^  but  may  rather  be  adduced  as  the  conse- 
quence of  it."     (Yol.  i.  pp.  82,  83.) 

Of  all  miracles,  this  universal  infatuation  of  the  con- 
temporaries of  Jesus,  and  of  the  men  of  several  suc- 
ceeding ages  who  heard  of  him,  thus  supposed  by 
Strauss,  and  by  him  offered  as  the  natural  explanation 
of  the  wonders  recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  is  the 
most  miraculous.  His  contemporaries  were  so  over- 
whelmed by  the  effect  of  the  sayings  and  doings  of 
Jesus,  who  was  only  a  very  good  and  wise  man,  that 
they  could  not  judge  soberly  of  him,  nor  of  his  acts. 
His  kind  deeds  were  magnified  into  wonderful  miracles 
on  every  hand.  Succeeding  generations  labored  under 
the  same  delusion,  which  deepened  and  spread ;  and 
men  kept  inventing  new  miracles  and  ascribed  them  to 
Jesus,  and  really  believed  they  were  true,  though  noth- 
ing of  the  kind  had  actually  happened.  They  believed 
and  taught  that  his  conception  was  miraculous,  and 
preceded  by  angelic  appearances  and  prodigies,  though 
he  had  been  born  just  like  any  other  child ;  na}^,  they 
persuaded  themselves  to  believe  finally,  that  after  his 
death,  Jesus  had  arisen  and  had  appeared  alive  repeat- 
edly to  many  who  knew  him  well,  though  nothing  of 
the  kind  had  occurred  to  Jesus  when  dead  more  than 
to  any  other  dead  man  !  And  this  is  rational  criticism 
on  the  gospel  history!     To  this  palpable  absurdity  are 


XXXll  INTRODUCTION. 

men  driven  who  deny  the  miracles  recorded  in  holy 
writ !  Their  theory  of  solution  is  far  more  incredible 
than  are  all  the  miracles  of  the  New  Testament !  Put 
out  of  view  the  absurdities  into  which  it  drives  him, 
and  we  must  admit  that  this  system  of  Dr.  Strauss  is  a 
very  convenient  one,  truly.  It  rests  wholly  on  his  as- 
sumed position — his  great  axiom — the  chain  of  natural 
events  is  immutable.  The  sequence  of  nature's  laws  is 
invariable. 

A  miracle  is  impossible,  prophecy  is  impossible,  there- 
fore all  accounts  detailing  miracles,  are  not  true,  they 
are  but  fables.  Such  fables  are  the  growth  of  long 
time  in  rude  ages,  therefore  the  Pentateuch  must  have 
been  a  collection  of  traditions,  put  together  many  ages 
after  the  occurrence  of  the  wonderful  events  which 
they  so  exaggerate;  consequently  the  Pentateuch  can- 
not be  the  work  of  Moses.  Moreover,  the  gospel  histo- 
ries also  being  full  of  marvels,  could  not  have  been  the 
production  of  eye-witnesses,  as  is  vulgarly  believed. 
The  Jewish  expectation  of  a  Messiah  prepared  the  way 
for  something  extraordinary  and  wonderful.  Jesus  of 
Galilee  was  no  ordinary  man.  His  life  and  teachings 
made  a  deep  impression  upon  the  public  mind.  The 
idea  that  he  was  the  long  looked-for  Messiah  was  sug- 
gested :  the  notion  took,  and  spread  rapidly  and  widely. 

All  the  long-cherished  national  ideas  about  the  Mes- 
siah were  soon  associated  with  the  name  of  Jesus. 
Popular  rumors  spread  the  idea  and  extended  the  be- 
lief. Yarious  accounts  of  the  rumored  wonders  were 
written  by  difterent  unknown  individuals,  and  were 
widely  circulated !  These  narratives  were  very  soon 
ascribed  to  the  immediate  followers  of  Jesus,  his  apos- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXUl 

ties,  as  they  were  designated,  as  the  authors  of  them ; 
and  at  length  the  Four  Gospels,  as  we  now  have  them, 
were  the  result !  And  this  miserable  system  is  put 
forth  to  the  world  as  criticism,  learned  criticism !  It  is 
put  forth  by  men  celebrated  for  profound  erudition  and 
critical  acumen ;  men,  too,  who  are  called  theologians 
and  Christian  divines !  But  in  reality,  this  system  ut- 
terly repudiates  the  authority  of  the  documents  it  pro- 
fessedly expounds. 

This  entire  system  of  exposition,  is  but  a  learned  in- 
fidelity :  it  rests  upon  a  mere  dogmatic  assumption,  viz. 
nothing  is  credible  or  possible  which  does  not  come 
within  the  range  of  our  personal  experience  or  personal 
observation  !  The  argument  amounts  to  just  this  : 
"  Because  we  have  never  seen  the  regular  chain  of  sec- 
ondary causes  and  their  effects  disturbed  by  single  ar- 
bitrary acts  of  interposition  by  the  One  Absolute  Cause, 
therefore  such  disturbance  never  did  take  place,  never 
could  take  place,  it  is  impossible,  and  no  evidence  can 
prove  that  it  has  occurred  ! 

If  the  fundamental  principle  on  which  Strauss  and 
his  co-laborers  proceed  in  their  criticisms,  be  correct, 
then  the  African  chieftain  who  scornfully  rejected  as 
absurd  and  incredible,  the  accounts  furnished  him  by 
his  foreign  visitors,  of  countries  where  water  becomes 
at  times  hard  and  solid  as  the  rocks,  was  in  the  right : 
then,  too,  the  wonderful  convulsions  of  the  surface  of 
this  planet  of  ours,  as  taught  by  geologists,  are  incredi- 
ble, and  their  occurrence  must  be  deemed  impossible. 
These  learned  men,  in  presenting  themselves  as  inter- 
preters of  the  sacred  books,  do  straightway  assume  the 
character  of  judges  :  and  instead  of  confining  them- 

2* 


XXxiv  INTRODUCTION. 

selves  to  the  proper  business  of  exposition,  i.  e.  explain- 
ing what  those  books  really  do  teach,  they  dogmatically 
declare,  that  so  and  so  these  books  cannot  teach,  be- 
cause so  to  teach  were  absurd ;  and  therefore  these 
books  do  not  teach  so. 

Whatever  else  it  may  be,  this  is  not  sober  criticism. 
The  business  of  a  critic  is  to  expound  the  true  import 
of  a  document  just  as  it  stands,  not  to  prescribe  what 
its  meaning  ought  to  be,  or  what  doctrines  it  ought  to 
contain  !  And  especially  in  interpreting  a  book  claim- 
ing to  be  divinely  inspired,  there  is  no  middle  ground 
between  absolute  infidelity,  and  absolute  belief ! 

The  design  of  the  following  pages  is  to  vindicate  the 
authority  of  the  sacred  books,  and  more  especially  of 
the  books  of  Moses,  against  the  sophistry  of  the  ration- 
alist, the  cavils  of  infidelity,  against  the  objections 
urged  on  various  scientific  grounds,  and  against  the 
difficulties  presented  in  the  alleged  results  of  modern 
research  and  recent  discovery  among  the  archives  of  the 
East  and  the  monumental  records  of  Egypt.  May  the 
God  of  Truth  accept  this  humble  tribute  to  the  value  of 
His  holy  book,  and  make  it  useful  to  many  a  young 
inquirer ! 

Mobile,  Febrnary  25, 1862. 


[tJNIVERSITT] 


LECTUEE   I. 

THE  CHARACTER  OF  MOSES  AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A 
STATESMAN. 

The  result  of  the  latest  researches  among  the  monu- 
ments of  Egypt,  compared  with  the  data  furnished  in  the 
most  carefully  revised  chronological  tables,  would  lead 
us  to  conclude,  that  Moses,  the  great  Jewish  lawgiver 
and  leader,  was  born  in  the  sixteenth,  or  early  in  the  fif- 
teenth century  before  the  Christian  era ;  and  during  the 
early  period  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  of  Egypt. — Dr. 
Nolan  places  the  Exodus  in  the  time  of  Thothmes  lY., 
B.C.  1492. 

Wilkinson  places  the  birth  of  Moses  B.C.  1571,  under 
Amosis  Chebron,  the  first  King  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty. 

The  Exodus  he  places  under  Thuramosis,  or  Toth- 
mosis,  or  Thothmes  III.,  the  sixth  King  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty,  B.C.  1491. 

Osburn  seems  to  place  the  birth  of  Moses  in  B.C.  1847, 
under  Amosis  the  first  King  of  eighteenth  dynasty. 

But  ChampoUion  Figeac  places  the  Exodus  at  B.C. 
1528.     (See  Egypte,  p.  340.) 

Moses  was,  unquestionably,  long  anterior  to  all  the 
records  of  authentic  history,  saving  only  the  books  fur- 
nished by  his  own  pen.  The  reputed  annals  of  China, 
of  India,  and  of  Chaldsea,  are,  demonstrably,  of  much 


36  THE   CHARACTER  OF  MOSES 

later  origin.  Some  few  hieroglyphic  inscriptions  on  the 
monuments  of  Egypt,  may  possibly  antedate  him ;  though 
even  this  is  not  beyond  the  reach  of  doubt.  Certain  it  is 
that  society  was  yet  in  its  infancy — saving  only  in  Egypt, 
— and  possibly  in  the  far  East ;  Homer,  the  father  of 
Grecian  song,  was  long,  long  posterior ;  and  even  the 
Trojan  wars,  of  which  Homer  sung,  occurred  only  in  the 
time  of  Solomon,  many  centuries  after  Moses.  The 
Grecian,  the  Persian,  and  even  the  Chaldaean  empires, 
whose  history  is,  to  ^^5,  that  of  the  remotest  antiquity, 
sprang  into  being  many  ages  after  Moses  lay  sleeping  in 
the  dust.  The  countries  where  those  nations  afterwards 
flourished,  and  where  the  kingdoms  of  modern  times 
afterwards  arose,  were  either  a  wilderness,  yet  unre- 
claimed from  their  original  solitude,  or  at  best,  the  seat 
of  hordes  of  wandering  barbarians. 

Egypt  was,  indeed,  already  occupied  by  a  people  nu- 
merous and  powerful, — a  people  subjected  to  a  govern- 
ment well  organized  and  vigorously  administered ;  a 
people,  too,  far  advanced  in  knowledge  of  the  arts  and 
sciences,  as  the  still  extant  monuments  of  their  greatness 
demonstrate.  But  the  Egyptians  stood  alone.  The  terri- 
tories adjacent  seem  to  have  been  occupied — as  Palestine 
unquestionably  was — by  numerous  petty  tribes,  mutually 
jealous  of,  and  hostile  towards,  one  another ;  and  engag- 
ed in  frequent  bloody  wars.  In  such  a  state  of  society, 
civilization  cannot  advance ;  men  remain,  for  long,  rude, 
unpolished  and  ignorant ;  and  it  is  passing  strange,  thai 
in  such  a  state  of  things,  such  a  man  as  Moses  should 
have  arisen,  and  such  writings  as  those  constituting  the 
Pentateuch,  should  have  been  produced  ! 

Therefore,  whether  we  consider  the  age  in  which  he 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  37 

lived, — the  condition  of  society  around  him, — the  dis- 
position of  the  people  with  whom  he  had  to  do, — the  diffi- 
culties with  which  he  had  to  contend,  or  the  triumphs 
he  achieved  in  arms,  in  arts  and  in  literature  ;  in  ethics, 
in  legislation,  and  in  government;  Moses  must  be  pro- 
nounced the  most  extraordinary  man  that  ever  lived  ! 

Of  the  race  of  Abraham,  in  the  line  of  Levi  the  son 
of  Jacob,  Moses  first  saw  the  light  in  Egypt,  where  his 
countrymen  had  resided  for  several  generations,  and 
were  now  suffering  cruel  oppression  from  the  powerful 
Egyptian  monarch.  The  date  of  the  birth  of  Moses 
cannot  be  fixed  with  absolute  precision ;  but,  according 
to  the  ordinary  computation,  it  was  about  a.m.  2433, 
or  B.C.  1600 ;  Usher  makes  the  Exodus,  B.C.  1495.  It  was 
certainly  during  the  period  when  the  cruel  policy  of  the 
Egyptian  court  required  the  destruction  of  all  male 
Hebrew  infants.  From  this  fate  Moses  was  rescued  by 
very  extraordinary  means. 

Maternal  tenderness  had  secreted  the  child  for  three 
months,  when  further  concealment  becoming  impracti- 
cable, he  was  placed  by  his  mother  in  a  kind  of  cradle,  or 
basket  of  bulrushes,  carefully  prepared  so  as  to  render  it 
impervious  to  water,  and  in  this  frail  vessel  he  was  left  near 
the  water's  edge,  on  the  bank  of  the  Nile,  where  he  was 
found  by  Thermothis,  (according  to  Dr.  Nolan  Ame7ise,) 
the  daughter  of  Pharaoh.  Moved  by  pity,  and  struck  by 
his  rare  infant  beauty,  the  princess  rescued  the  found- 
ling, adopted  him  for  her  own  son,  and  by  a  strange  but 
happy  coincidence,  he  was  by  her  confided  to  the  care 
of  his  own  mother  as  nurse.  From  the  manner  of  his 
preservation,  he  was  called  Mou-sha,  (Heb.  Moshee — 
Moses,  i.  e.  drawn  from  water.) — Usher'' s  Exodus^  B.C.  1491. 


38  THE   CHARACTER  OF  MOSES 

For  it  is  found  that  the  Egyptian  names  given  in  the 
books  of  Moses,  are  genuine  Egyptian,  as  is  proved  from 
the  monuments.* 

How  long  Moses  remained  in  the  family  of  his  own 
parents,  we  know  not ;  but  it  was  certainly  long  enough 
for  him  to  become  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  true  na- 
tional feeling  of  a  Hebrew.  At  a  suitable  age,  he  was 
claimed  by  the  princess,  and  educated  with  all  the  care 
due  to  one  openly  acknowledged  as  the  adopted  son  of 
the  heir  to  the  most  powerful  throne  in.  the  world  I 

Josephus  tells  us,  that  when  only  four  years  old,  Moses 
was  presented  by  the  princess  to  the  reigning  Pharaoh, 
her  father,  as  her  son  and  heir ;  and  that  to  gratify  his 
daughter,  the  monarch  took  the  child  in  his  arms  and 
placed  the  royal  crown  on  his  head;  but  that  he  cast  it 
indignantly  to  the  ground  and  trampled  upon  it.  Where- 
upon, several  of  Pharaoh's  most  revered  counsellors  ad- 
vised the  immediate  destruction  of  the  child,  as  of  one 
certain,  should  he  live,  to  bring  dire  calamities  on  the 
kingdom,  the  emblem  of  whose  sovereignty  he  thus 
early  treated  with  indignity.  This  cruel  policy  Provi- 
dence suffered  not  to  be  carried  into  effect. 

His  position  in  the  court  of  Pharaoh  must  have  insur- 
ed to  him  the  best  possible  education  ;  and  as  the  royal 
family  of  Egypt  were  connected  with  the  priesthood,  (the 
monarch  himself  being  often  of  the  sacerdotal  order,) 
Moses  must  have  had  access  to  all  the  varied  stores  of 
knowledge,  in  history,  natural  science,  philosophy,  legis- 

*  The  Hebrew  rabbins  relate  wonderful  stories  of  the  infancy  of 
Moses.  Among  others,  they  aver  that  the  princess  was  a  leper;  that 
the  mere  touch  of  the  ark  containing  tlie  infant,  cured  her,  and  hence 
her  determination  to  adopt  the  child  it  contained. 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  89 

lation,  and  government, — to  all  the  monuments  of  their 
antiquity,  and  the  secrets  of  their  religion,  for  which  that 
ancient  people  were  distinguished.  And  thus  it  is  re- 
corded,— ^^ Moses  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians  /" 

An  apt  scholar  he  was  unquestionably,  for  the  writings 
he  has  left  behind  him,  and  the  records  of  his  vast 
achievements,  show  that  he  far  transcended  his  instruc- 
tors in  true  wisdom,  and  in  sober  practical  learning. 

In  the  court  of  Pharaoh  Moses  held  his  distinguished 
position  till  he  had  reached  full  maturity.  About  the  age 
of  forty,  Josephus  assures  us,  he  headed  the  Egyptian 
armies  in  an  expedition  into  Ethiopia,  where  he  subdued 
the  city  Saba ;  he  also  won  the  affections  of  Tharbis,  the 
princess  of  the  people  he  had  vanquished,  and  married 
her.  If  this  tradition  be  true,  we  know  not  that  he  had 
any  issue  by  this  marriage. 

It  must  have  been  after  his  return  from  this  successful 
military  expedition  that  the  circumstance  occurred,  which, 
by  reviving  an  instinctive  and  indomitable  love  for  his 
own  peculiar  and  oppressed  race,  gave  a  new  and  unex- 
pected turn  to  the  current  of  his  life,  and  altered  the  en- 
tire complexion  of  his  destiny. 

Distinguished  in  rank,  high  in  favor  at  court,  and 
honored  for  his  brilliant  success  in  arms,  Moses  could 
not  forget  that  he  was  of  the  stock  of  Abraham,  and  that 
the  oppressed  Hebrews  whom  he  beheld  toiling  in  cruel 
bondage,  were  his  brethren  ! 

The  merest  accident,  seemingly,  roused  these  latent 
feelings  into  sudden  and  decisive  action.  Going  out  one 
day,  for  the  express  purpose  of  observing  the  condition 
of  his  countrymen,  his  indignation  was  aroused  by  the 


40  THE   CHARACTER   OF  MOSES 

spectacle  of  an  Egyptian  smiting  a  Hebrew.  Glancing 
hastily  around  to  assure  himself  that  he  was  not  observ- 
ed, he  vindicated  his  Hebrew  brother,  by  killing  the 
Egyptian  on  the  spot.  The  body  he  hid  in  the  sand. 
Attempting,  on  another  occasion,  soon  after,  to  reconcile 
two  Hebrews  whom  he  found  quarrelling,  his  interfer- 
ence was  resisted  by  the  aggressor,  accompanied  by  a 
bitter  taunt  against  him  as  the  killer  of  the  Egyptian,  so 
recently.  Justly  concluding  that  the  deed  was  known, 
that  an  investigation  must  take  place  and  punishment 
follow,  unmitigated  by  royal  favor — which  must  now  be 
lost  to  him — Moses  fled  from  the  face  of  Pharaoh,  who, 
as  he  had  surmised,  sought  to  slay  him.  The  old  Jewish 
rabbins  have  here  a  singular  story.  They  tell  us  that  Moses 
was  actually  apprehended  for  this  act,  and  condemned 
to  death  ;  but  that  God  caused  his  neck  suddenly  to  as- 
sume a  preternatural  hardness,  so  that  the  sword  of  the 
executioner,  not  only  left  Moses  uninjured,  but  by  its  re- 
bound, killed  the  executioner  himself.  At  such  fables 
we  can  only  smile.  Certain  it  is  that  Moses  left  the 
country,  and  retired  to  Midian,  where  he  who  had  dwelt 
in  courts,  and  had  led  powerful  armies  to  conquest,  en- 
gaged himself  to  Jethro,  a  priest  of  the  country,  in  the 
humble  capacity  of  herdsman,  or  keeper  of  his  flocks.  In 
this  obscure  retreat,  he  remained  many  years,  having 
married  Zipporah,  daughter  of  Jethro,  by  whom  he  had 
two  sons.  This  entire  and  long  continued  seclusion 
furnished  Moses  with  abundant  leisure  for  reflection  on  the 
condition  and  prospects  of  his  countrymen,  and  for 
maturing  plans  for  their  relief. 

Here  also,  as  we  may  well  suppose,  he  reviewed  the 
studies  of  his  early  youth,  and  explored  those  fields  of 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN".  41 

knowledge,  to  reap  which,  those  studies  had  qualified  him. 
Here,  doubtless,  he  rendered  himself  familiar  with  the 
traditions  and  the  imperfect  records  then  in  existence  of 
the  history  of  mankind  since  the  flood,  and  possibly  in 
antediluvian  times :  and  here,  in  all  probabiHty,  he  wrote 
the  book  of  Genesis,  and  revised,  (perhaps  translated,) 
the  book  of  Job,  for  the  use  of  his  countrymen.  Certain 
it  is  that  here  he  claims  to  have  received  his  commission 
from  the  Almighty  Jehovah,  to  act  as  His  representative 
in  the  deliverance  of  the  Hebrews  from  Egyptian  bon- 
dage, and  in  their  safe  conduct  to  the  promised  land! 
The  project  of  such  an  enterprise  seems  to  have  been 
brooding  in  his  mind  for  many  years. 

The  dying  martyr  Stephen  represents  Moses  as  enter- 
taining this  idea  even  at  the  time  he  killed  the  Egyptian, 
previously  to  his  flight  into  Midian,  ''''for  he  sujyposed  his 
brethren  would  have  understood  how  God^  hy  his  hand^  would 
deliver  them .'"'  (Acts  vii.  25.)  Not  improbably  the  supine- 
ness,  the  tame  serf-like  spirit  evinced  by  his  countrymen 
on  that  occasion,  had  chilled  the  fervor  of  patriotic  feel- 
ing in  the  breast  of  their  illustrious  defender,  and  long 
suppressed  the  spirit  of  heroic  daring  that  was  glow- 
ing within  him.  Eepressed  it  was,  and  held  in  check 
for  years,  but  eradicated  it  could  not  be;  and  amid 
the  shady  retreats  around  Horeb,  where  he  tended  his 
flocks,  the  wrongs  of  his  countrymen,  and  the  means  and 
mode  of  redress  were  oft  and  deeply  pondered!  Tlie 
season  for  action  at  length  arrived.  The  strange  phe- 
nomenon of  a  bush  on  Mount  Horeb,  burning  appar- 
ently, with  brilliant  blaze  and  intense  heat,  yet  still  un- 
consumed,  caught  his  attention  and  arrested  his  steps.  A 
voice  addressing  him  from   the  midst  of  the  burning 


42  THE   CHARACTER   OF   MOSES 

bush,  satisfied  him  that  he  stood  in  the  presence  of  Je- 
hovah, Abraham's  God.  Then  and  there  it  was  that 
Moses  received  his  heavenly  commission,  as  the  deliverer, 
the  legislator,  the  prophet  and  the  leader  of  Israel ;  he 
was  clothed  with  full  authority  and  invested  with  all 
necessary  powers  to  achieve  the  magnificent  enterprise. 
He  promptly  obeyed.  He  made  immediate  arrangements 
to  pass,  with  his  young  family,  into  Egypt,  there  to  enter 
upon  the  discharge  of  his  new  functions.  On  his  journey 
from  Midian  to  Egypt  occurred  a  singular  incident.  By 
some  unexplained  means,  probably  a  malignant  disease, 
Moses  was  placed  in  eminent  peril  of  his  life.  Kightly 
interpreting  this  as  a  proof  of  heaven's  displeasure,  for  the 
neglect  of  the  sacred  Jewish  covenant  in  his  own  family, 
he  caused  both  his  sons  to  be  circumcised.  The  peril 
passed  away,  and  he  resumed  his  journey,  with  this  im- 
pressive lesson,  "  That  no  public  commission^  no  official 
engagements^  can  lawfully  he  allowed  to  inter/ere  with  private 
personal  or  social  duties^  Ere  he  reached  Egypt,  Moses 
was  joined  by  his  brother  Aaron,  whom,  by  divine  direc- 
tion, he  associated  with  him  as  his  coadjutor  and  spokes- 
man. They  summoned  the  leading  men  of  Israel,  de- 
tailed to  them  their  plans,  and  opened  their  commission. 
The  hope  of  national  deliverance  was  awakened,  and  the 
people  agreed  to  submit  to  Moses,  as  the  leader,  and  the 
prophet,  duly  commissioned  of  Jehovah.  Speedily  there- 
after Moses  appeared  at  court  and  obtained  an  audience 
of  the  reigning  Pharaoh,  and  boldly  demanded  the  re- 
lease of  the  whole  Hebrew  people,  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  their  passing  beyond  the  Egyptian  frontier,  there 
to  serve  the  God  of  their  ancestors  with  rites,  which,  to 
the  ox-worshiping   Egyptians,  would  have  seemed  an 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  48 

impious  abomination.  This  demand,  earnestly  made,  and 
urged  in  repeated  audiences  before  the  monarch,  was 
long  and  resolutely  refused :  until  a  series  of  prodigies, 
unprecedented  and  unparalleled  in  the  world's  history, 
wrung  from  the  proud  Pharaoh,  a  reluctant  consent. 

The  further  details  of  the  matchless  career  of  Moses  I 
shall  not  minutely  pursue.  They  constitute  the  historical 
portion  of  the  books  of  Moses,  chiefly  the  Exodus,  and 
are  familiar  to  all. 

Under  the  guidance  of  this  illustrious  leader,  the  whole 
body  of  the  Hebrews,  with  their  wives  and  their  little 
ones,  their  flocks  and  their  herds,  and  greatly  enriched 
by  liberal  largess  from  their  late  oppressors,  left  the  Egyp- 
tian frontier  behind  them.  At  the  shores  of  the  Bed 
Sea  they  were  overtaken  by  the  disciplined  hosts  of  the 
repentant  Pharaoh's  armies  in  hot  pursuit.  Through  the 
Red  Sea,  miraculously  divided  before  them,  Israel's 
bands  safely  passed,  while  the  pursuing  Egyptians  were 
therein  drowned  beneath  its  returning  waters.  During 
their  long  sojourn  of  many  years  in  the  desert  regions 
of  Arabia,  the  Hebrews  were  led,  directed,  provided  for 
and  protected  from  every  foe  by  the  matchless  skill,  the 
sleepless  vigilance,  and  the  untiring  energy  of  this  re- 
nowned commander.  He  fed  them  with  food  that  fell 
daily  like  the  dew :  he  supplied  them  with  water  that 
gushed  at  his  bidding  from  the  sterile  rock,  and  at  Sinai's 
rugged  mountain,  near  which  they  lay  encamped  about 
a  year,  he  deUvered  to  them,  as  the  immediate  enactment 
of  the  Mighty  Jehovah,  whose  servant  he  avowed  him- 
self, that  inimitable  document,  that  matchless  code  of 
morals,  the  decalogue^  the  two  tables  containing  the  ten 
commandments. 


44  THE  CHARACTER  OF  MOSES 

At  length,  when  he  had  brought  the  Hebrews,  after  a 
sojourn  of  nearly  forty  years  in  the  Arabian  desert,  to 
the  borders  of  the  promised  land,  this  distinguished  man 
pronounced  his  farewell  discourse  in  the  hearing  of  all 
the  people.  He  delivered,  in  their  presence,  a  copy  of 
the  annals  he  had  written,  and  which  also  embodied  the 
entire  system  of  laws  he  had  enacted,  into  the  hands  of 
the  chief  ecclesiastical  officers,  to  be  by  them  sacredly 
preserved  in  the  ark,  the  palladium  of  their  religion  and 
of  their  national  hopes.  He  resigned  the  government  into 
the  hands  of  Joshua,  whom  he  had  carefully  trained 
to  act  as  his  successor,- and  then  this  venerable  prince, 
this  matchless  lawgiver,  retired  to  die  in  privacy,  in  the 
presence  only  of  the  God  he  had  so  long  served.  At  the 
age  of  120  years,  while  yet  "Aw  eye  was  not  dim,  nor  his 
natural  force  ahated,'^  Moses  died,  deeply  lamented ;  and 
to  this  day,  by  his  whole  nation,  he  is  revered  as  the 
greatest  as  well  as  the  first  of  their  prophets,  and  the 
most  distinguished  man  of  all  their  race ! 

The  character  of  Moses  presents  a  brilliant  assemblage 
of  excellences,  rarely  found  combined  in  any  one  indi- 
vidual ! 

As  a  man,  his  conduct  was  most  exemplary.  He  dis- 
charged all  the  duties  of  private  life  with  uniform  pro- 
priety. As  a  son,  a  brother,  a  husband  and  a  father,  his 
life  was  a  pattern  of  propriety,  and  his  reputation  with- 
out a  stain.  The  kind  fraternal  intercourse  he  ever 
maintained  with  Aaron  his  brother,  and  with  Miriam  his 
sister,  was  every  way  becoming,  while  the  respect  with 
which  he  treated  Jethro,  the  father  of  Zipporah  his  wife, 
and  the  readiness  with  which  he  adopted  the  discreet  sug- 
gestions Jethro  made  respecting  the  appointment  of  subor- 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN".  45 

dinate  judges,  (see  Exod.  xviii.  17-27;)  evince  the  beauty 
of  reverence  for  virtuous  age,  the  courtesy  of  the  kind 
kinsman,  and  the  policy  of  the  sagacious  statesman.  The 
conduct  of  Moses  furnishes  a  beautiful  exemplification  of 
that  regard  for  the  claims  of  age,  of  kindred,  and  of  one's 
country,  so  emphatically  enjoined  in  his  writings. 

He  was  evidently  a  good  man  and  sincere.  Moses  was  no 
impostor.  He  devoutly,  believed  in  the  divine  origin  of 
the  commission  under  which  he  acted,  and  in  the  truth 
and  importance  of  the  doctrines  he  inculcated.  This  his 
whole  life  shows.  In  prosecution  of  his  extraordinary 
mission,  he  hazarded  his  lofty  position  in  the  Egyptian 
court.  He  vindicated  his  oppressed  countrymen  at  the 
risk  of  his  own  life,  and  after  he  had  entered  on  the  pub- 
lic duties  of  his  great  enterprise,  he  braved  every  danger. 
He  fearlessly  presented  himself  before  the  powerful  Pha- 
raoh, the  deadly  enemy  of  his  race ;  and  in  the  presence 
of  the  scoffing  court,  he  vindicated  his  own  commission, 
the  majesty  of  the  God  in  whose  name  he  acted,  and  the 
rights  of  the  oppressed  Israelites,  for  whom  he  pleaded. 
Neither  murmurings  among  his  own  people,  nor  threats 
nor  insults  from  the  Egyptian  court,  could  deter  him  or 
cause  him  to  waver  for  an  instant.  He  carried  his  point. 
He  led  the  Hebrews  forth  from  under  the  yoke  of  Pha- 
raoh, and  saw  them  encamped  in  safety  near  the  foot  of 
Mount  Sinai,  after  a  series  of  prodigies  unheard  of  in  the 
history  of  the  world  till  then.  Of  these  prodigies  a  mi- 
nute account  is  given  in  his  writings.  In  memory  of 
them,  rites  peculiar  and  most  expressive  were  by  him 
incorporated  into  the  religious  system  of  the  Hebrews : 
and  he  appeals  to  their  knowledge  of  these  very  events, 
as  containing  the  reason  for  the  appointment,  and  suffi- 


46  THE  CHARACTER  OF  MOSES 

cient  motives  for  tlie  conscientious  observance  of  these 
very  rites.  Imposition  here  would  have  been  impracti- 
cable. Had  these  assertions  of  miracles  and  prodigies 
performed  by  Moses  on  their  behalf  and  before  their  own 
eyes,  been  false,  the  Jews  would  have  known  it ;  and 
they  never  could  have  been  induced  to  favor  and  to  per- 
petuate the  shameless  lie,  by  observing  these  rites,  and 
enjoining  on  their  children  the  sacred  observance  of  them 
in  all  time  to  come.  But  observe  them  they  did,  with 
great  reverence  ;  and  they  have  perpetuated  this  observ- 
ance among  their  descendants,  in  every  age,  to  the  pres- 
ent day ! 

The  Jews,  who  had  every  advantage  for  ascertaining 
the  truth  in  this  case,  firmly  believed  in  the  sincerity  of 
Moses,  and  in  the  truth  of  his  narration  of  prodigies  by 
him  performed.  And  to  this  day  their  descendants  be- 
lieve the  same,  and  revere  the  memory  of  Moses  as  of  a 
man  pre-eminently  wise^  sincere^  and  good.  Moses  was  also 
a  man  of  great  firmness  and  self-control.  In  many  ways 
this  was  shown.  It  is  apparent  in  the  steadfastness  with 
which  he  adhered  to  his  one  great  purpose  of  emanci- 
pating Israel,  and  habituating  them  to  the  novel  institu- 
tions he  felt  himself  commissioned  to  establish.  The 
frowns  of  power,  and  the  clamors  of  the  mob  were  alike 
incapable  of  shaking  his  settled  purpose,  or  of  turning 
him  from  it  for  a  moment. 

When  the  people  gathered  together  in  tumultuous  as- 
semblies, loudly  clamoring  against  his  rule  as  unauthor- 
ized and  irksome,  he  calmly  faced  the  angry  multitude 
and  reproved  them  for  their  folly,  and  their  impious  re- 
bellion against  the  God  he  served.  When  he  saw  the 
multitude  sunk  in  licentious  indulgence,  and  thus  in- 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  47 

viting  speedy  destruction,  Moses  hesitated  not  to  apply 
the  severest  remedies.  He  ralHed  his  faithful  adherents 
around  him,  and,  sword  in  hand,  he  reduced  the  multi- 
tude to  reason  and  submission,  even  though  it  cost  the 
lives  of  thousands.  'Twas  the  only  price  at  which  a 
return  to  virtue  and  good  order  could  be  purchased. 

When,  on  another  occasion,  his  integrity  was  called  in 
question,  and  the  validity  of  his  commission,  and  of  the 
priesthood  he  had  instituted  was  denied,  alone  and  un- 
supported he  meets  the  tumultuous  rebels,  and  fronting 
them  all,  he  calmly  appeals  to  heaven  for  the  vindication 
of  his  integrity  and  the  punishment  of  his  assailants. 
Fire  suddenly  breaking  forth  and  consuming  the  sacrile- 
gious invaders  of  the  priesthood,  an  earthquake  that 
swallowed  up  Korah,  and  the  next  day's  pestilence  that 
swept  through  the  murmuring  camp,  fully  justified  his 
noble  self-possession,  and  reliance  on  God.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  contemplate  Moses  in  the  midst  of  scenes  like 
these,  (and  they  were,  alas !  but  too  frequent,)  without 
being  struck  with  the  dignity  of  his  character  as  pre-em- 
inently ^rm,  calm^  and  self-possessed. 

As  a  patriot^  Moses  was  yet  more  distinguished.  No  man 
that  ever  lived  accomplished  more  for  his  countrymen, 
and  secured  less  to  himself.  Contemplate  but  what  Moses 
achieved,  and  at  what  cost  to  himself,  and  his  character 
will  stand  forth  beaming  with  the  glory  of  the  purest  pa- 
triotism. Himself  trained  in  a  court,  surrounded  with  its 
pleasures,  and  loaded  with  its  honors,  he  beheld  the  spec- 
tacle of  a  people  enslaved,  degraded,  and  cruelly  oppressed. 
Those  wretched  victims  of  a  relentless  policy,  he  could 
not  forget  were  his  countrymen  and  his  brethren !  Most 
men,  in  the  position  of  Moses,  would  have  shunned 


48  THE   CHARACTER   OF   MOSES 

them,  ashamed  of  his  origin,  and  desirous  to  eradicate 
the  remembrance  of  it  from  his  own  mind,  and  from  the 
minds  of  the  courtiers  around  him.  But  so  far  from 
this,  the  noble-minded  Moses  felt  and  yielded  to  the 
claims  of  consanguinity.  He  clung  to  his  people  the 
more  tenaciously  for  the  misery  in  which  he  saw  them 
sunk.  He  identified  himself  with  them  by  one  daring 
act,  as  if  to  show  his  determination  to  rescue  them,  or  to 
perish  in  the  attempt.  The  ignorance  of  his  countrymen, 
their  degradation  of  character,  (an  inevitable  fruit  of 
long  years  of  servitude,)  and  their  strong  yearnings  after 
the  idolatrous  usages  and  licentious  pleasures  prevailing 
around  them,  presented  formidable  difficulties.  Nothing 
deterred  at  the  prospect,  Moses  met  these  difficulties  pa- 
tiently and  resolutely,  and,  by  a  discreet  perseverance,  he 
overcame  them  all. 

The  sacred  functions  of  the  priestly  office  he  assigned 
to  Aaron,  his  brother,  to  be  perpetuated  in  his  family ; 
for  Phineas,  the  son  of  Aaron,  had  shown  himself  every 
way  equal  to  this  high  dignity.  His  own  sons  Moses  left 
in  the  inferior  rank  of  Levites,  subordinate  to  the  priest- 
hood. During  his  own  natural  life,  it  is  true,  Moses  was 
the  leader  and  the  judge  of  Israel.  But,  after  giving 
them  a  pure  religion,  national  independence,  and  a  gov- 
ernment strongly  imbued  with  a  genuine  democratic 
spirit,  (since  the  most  important  offices  were  elective,)  he 
appointed  Joshua,  a  man  unconnected  with  his  own  fam- 
ily, to  succeed  him  as  leader  of  Israel,  and  to  settle  the 
tribes  in  the  promised  land  of  Canaan.  The  whole  life 
of  Moses  is  replete  with  genuine  patriotism — noble,  pure — 
as  that  of  the  immortal  Washington.     Moses  was  to  the 


§3 


ui 


cog 


Djj 


I  Si 


o 


^: 


o 


1-4   CO 


<   ^   O 

O  -     <T 

-J  e  r* 
O  J^ 
>-  o 

<z   -^    -^^ 
a,  C  O 

JO* 

J^     -^ 

U4  ^  w 
t-  *-<  o 


r^^>^r^ 


U4 

5.  ^  ^ 


O 

r. 


J 
J 


:i;  in  cvi 
o  3N  ^:*3 


o  ^  ^  ^ 
>^  c  -^  X 


IX. 


^ 


i    &  O  O 

..  X 

;r    >-   fcH   ^ 

^  2:  ':>  <X 


50  THE   CHARACTER  OF  MOSES 

These  monuments  could  not  have  been  erected  before 
the  soil  on  which  they  stand,  and  from  which  their  build- 
ers must  have  obtained  their  sustenance,  was  formed.* 

Moreover,  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  Moses  gives 
a  concise  history  of  the  origin  of  this  earth,  and  of  its 
living  occupants.  Now  a  diligent  comparison  of  the  sev- 
eral steps,  in  the  creative  process,  as  detailed  by  Moses, 
with  the  most  approved  theories  of  cosmogony  now  in 
vogue  among  the  learned,  and  especially  with  the  order 
which  geological  researches  show  that  the  great  Archi- 
tect of  the  universe  did  actually  observe  in  the  produc- 
tion of  the  several  occupants  of  our  globe,  from  the  first 
breaking  up  of  chaos,  has  satisfied  many  among  the 
learned,  that  however  it  may  have  been  obtained  by  the 
writer,  the  scientific  knowledge  embodied  in  the  books 
of  Moses  is  so  varied,  so  profound,  and  so  accurate,  that 
the  noblest  results  of  modern  scientific  research,  are  only 
an  approximation  to  a  recovery,  in  our  times,  of  scientific 
knowledge  perfectly  familiar  to  Moses. 

The  erudite  and  candid  author  of  L'Egypte  Pha- 
raonique,  remarks  on  this  subject : — 

"  The  cosmogony  of  Moses,  simple,  clear,  and  natural, 
is  evidently  the  result  of  learned  research.  The  author 
of  this  system,  respecting  the  origin  of  the  earth  and  the 
heavens,  mtjist  necessarily  have  devoted  himself  to  profound 
meditations  on  the  history  of  the  globe :  and  it  is  certain,  that 
geology  must,  in  his  day,  have  reached  an  extraordinary  point 
of  perfection,  for  the  historian  to  follow,  as  Moses  has  done, 
step  by  step,  all  the  mysteries  of  that  creation."  Again, 
he  writes : — 

"  No  mortal  man  assisted  at  the  work  of  creation :  no 
*  See  M.  Henri's  "Egypte  Pharaonique,"  vol.  i.  40,  41. 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  51 

human  eye  could  have  penetrated  the  mystery,  and  re- 
ported to  us  that  which  took  place  at  the  grand  epoch  of 
the  origin  of  this  world.  And  yet  Moses  recounts  all 
that  the  hand  of  God  wrought  to  form  this  universe: 
and  what  Moses  relates,  exhibits  an  exactitude  and  an 
accuracy  so  complete,  that  the  progress  which  the  sci- 
ences have  made  in  our  days,  lends  the  support  of  their 
resistless  testimony  to  each  one  of  his  narrations.  So 
valuable  are  the  writings  of  Moses  as  embodying  the 
first  principles  of  science. 

To  quote  the  language  of  a  distinguished  French  wri- 
ter, who  rejects  the  idea  of  inspiration: — ''The  history 
of  the  creation,  as  given  by  Moses,  which  is  the  system 
of  Egypt  in  the  first,  or  learned  age  of  its  existence,  can 
only  be  regarded  as  the  result  of  the  long-continued  study 
of  a  great  number  of  countries  of  different  geologic  for- 
juations,  compared  one  with  another,  and  the  application 
of  principles  deduced  from  laborious  geognostic  explora- 
tions. It  evinces,  consequently,  a  very  advanced  state 
of  the  sciences,  chemical,  and  consequently  of  mathe- 
matics also."  (Henri,  Egypte  Pharaonique,  vol.  i.  pp.  155, 
156.) 

Another  writer  in  the  same  language,  remarks: — '^ So 
many  things  would  prove  Moses  to  be  a  wise  geologist  of  our 
age,  if  he  did  not  learn  the  facts  which  he  relates,  from 
some  other  source  than  the  study  of  the  formation  of  the 
globe,  that  it  is  only  a  mind  in  which  great  frivolity  of 
character  is  joined  to  deplorable  ignorance,  that  can  per- 
ceive any  flagrant  contradiction  between  Holy  Scripture 
and  the  profane  sciences."  (Am.  Saintes'  History  of  na- 
tionalism in  Germany.  Eng.  Transl.  Lond.  1849,  p.  263.) 
In  another  passage  in  the  same  work,   M.    Saintes   re- 


52-  THE   CHARACTER  OF   MOSES 

marks : — "  The  sciences,  in  our  days,  display  in  their 
teachings,  notwithstanding  the  assertions  to  the  contrary, 
more  and  more  harmony  with  biblical  facts."  He  here 
refers  to  the  first  part  of  Genesis,  (id.  p.  67.) 

A  mind  of  the  highest  order,  then,  Moses  unquestion- 
tionably  had;  a  mind  well  disciplined,  richly  cultivated, 
and  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  profoundest  philo- 
sophical views  of  the  age:  while  he  soared  far  above 
those  views,  immeasurably  outstripping  his  contempo- 
raries ! 

The  simple  majesty  in  which  he  presents  the  idea 
of  God,  the  one  Being  uncreated  and  the  all-powerful 
Creator  of  all  things,  the  directness  with  which  he  states 
his  lofty  doctrines,  and  the  perfect  clearness  and  pre- 
cision with  which  he  lays  down  the  several  duties  of 
morality,  and  that  too,  in  an  age  of  idolatry,  superstition, 
and  licentiousness  sanctioned  under  the  venerable  name^ 
of  religion,  discover  in  the  Jewish  leader  a  mind  of 
transcendent  powers,  of  surpassing  vigor,  and  clearness, 
far-reaching  in  its  views,  and  deep,  penetrating,  and  ac- 
curate in  its  conclusions. 

In  the  vast  expanse  of  ethics  and  philosophy,  Moses 
was  the  morning  star  that  ushers  in  the  day.  He  was 
the  Columbus  who  explored  unknown  deeps,  the  reveal- 
er  of  the  certain  and  the  solid.  What  though  you  tell 
me  that  Moses  was  thus  elevated  in  intellectual  dignity 
and  power,  by  the  direct  inspiration  of  God !  Admitted, 
freely  admitted  :  but  what  then  ?  All  minds  are  the  pro- 
duct of  God,  all  their  powers  and  capacities,  their  talents, 
their  capabilities,  yea  genius  itself^  are  from  God !  Our 
talents  for  acquiring  knowledge,  our  opportunities  and 
facilities  for  gaining  it,  and  our  tact  and  ability  for  rightly 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  53 

using  it  when  gained,  are  all  the  gift  of  God,  as  truly  as 
was  the  supernatural  knowledge  of  Moses.  But  knowl- 
edge, however  gained,  expands  and  strengthens  the 
mind  that  has  it.  Moses  had  a  mind  pre-eminently  vigor- 
ous, and  active,  richly  stored,  too,  with  knowledge  which 
he  well  knew  how  to  use  to  the  best  advantage.  That 
knowledge,  that  tact  and  ability  were  his,  and  not  the 
less  so  because  he  was  inspired.  They  appertained  to  his 
mind,  they  determined  bis  character,  and  made  him  what 
he  was,  the  master  spirit  of  the  age,  the  glory  of  his 
nation,  an  ornament  to  humanity  and  a  blessing  to  man. 

As  to  his  writings^  Moses  is  distinguished  for  the  sim- 
plicity of  his  diction,  the  clearness  with  which  he  con- 
veys his  ideas,  and  the  purity  of  the  style  in  which  those 
ideas  are  clothed.  Occasionally  he  rises  to  the  loftiest 
heights  of  eloquence  ;  as  in  the  triumphant  anthem  sung 
on  the  destruction  of  the  Egyptian  hosts  in  the  Eed  Sea, 
(Exod.  XV.  1-20,)  in  the  prophecies  he  attributes  to  Ba- 
laam, and  in  the  beautiful  description  he  gives  of  the  care 
of  Jehovah  over  his  people,  like  a  majestic  eagle  hovering 
over,  guarding  and  directing  her  young,  (Deut.  xxxii. 
1-14.) 

In  the  pathetic  too,  the  history  he  gives  of  Joseph,  is  to 
this  day  unrivalled  for  a  touching  simplicity  true  to  nature. 

To  the  pen  of  Moses  we  may  certainly  ascribe  the  first 
five  books  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  i.  e.  Genesis^  Exodus^ 
Leviticus^  Numbers^  and  Deuteronomy.  Besides  these  books, 
known  as  the  Pentateuch,  the  Jews  generally  reckon  as 
the  product  of  Moses  eleven  psalms,  i.  e.  from  the  xc. 
to  C. :  of  this,  however,  we  have  no  absolute  certainty. 

By  not  a  few  distinguished  men  it  has  also  been  be- 
lieved, that  Moses  is  the  author  of  the  book  of  Job.     The 


54  THE   CHARACTER   OF   MOSES 

celebrated  Origen,  who  flourished  in  the  third  century 
of  the  Christian  era,  maintained  that  Moses  translated  the 
book  of  Job  out  of  Syriac,  or  Arabic,  into  Hebrew.  This 
opinion  is  still  held  by  many :  nor  is  it  altogether  im- 
probable ;  although  there  is  certainly  a  great  difference, 
remarked  by  learned  men,  between  the  style  in  which 
the  book  of  Job,  and  those  of  the  Pentateuch  are  written. 

The  author  of  writings  such  as  these,  which  have  out- 
lived so  many  ages  and  centuries,  which  have  come  down 
to  us  through  thousands  of  years,  and  which  still  com- 
mand the  veneration  of  the  most  enlightened  portion  of 
mankind,  as  treasuries  of  knowledge,  and  oracles  of  wis- 
dom, is  surely  entitled  to  the  very  foremost  place  on  the 
records  of  fame  as  a  scholar^  a  thinker  and  a  writer.  He 
IS  all  original^  from  first  to  last.  Before  all  others  in  time, 
he  still  stands,  unsurpassed  in  accurate  science,  unequalled 
in  simphcity,  clearness,  sublimity  and  touching  pathos. 
As  such  he  is  still  universally  admired  and  used. 

But,  in  the  tumultuous  scenes  of  public  life^  as  well  as  in 
private,  in  the  camp  and  the  field,  as  well  as  in  the  closet, 
die  conduct  and  the  achievements  of  Moses^  command  oxer 
respect.  He  was  a  brave  warrior  and  a  successful  general  no 
less  than  a  profound  scholar.  Like  CaDsar,  he  could  con- 
duct an  army  to  victory  in  the  face  of  an  immensely  su- 
perior enemy,  and  then  exchange  the  sword  for  the  pen, 
and  furnish  interest  and  instruction  both,  in  the  modest 
narrative  he  wrote  of  deeds  achieved  by  his  own  skill 
and  prowess.  Tradition  represents  Moses  as  waging  suc- 
cessful war  in  Ethiopia,  in  command  of  the  Egyptian 
armies,  and  acquiring  distinction,  power  and  renown, 
before  he  abandoned  the  court  of  which  he  was  an  adopt- 
ed son.     Of  these   earlier  exploits,  however,  we   have 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  55 

received  no  authentic  records.  But,  from  the  hour  when 
he  stepped  forth  as  the  advocate  and  the  leader  of  the 
Hebrews,  his  military  talents  were  called  into  requisi- 
tion, and  their  exertion  was  signally  successful. 

The  hare  fact  that  he  could  arouse  to  a  sense  of  their 
wrongs  a  vast,  but  miserable  horde  of  task-driven  serfs, 
that  he  could  inspire  them  with  a  desire  for  freedom,  and 
keep  that  desire  alive;  that  he  could  unite  this  undis- 
ciplined rabble  in  one  body  and  keep  them  so ;  that  he 
could  lead  them  forth  in  safety,  encumbered  as  they  were 
with  their  women,  their  children,  their  cattle  and  all 
their  possessions,  and  that  too  in  the  face  of  a  powerful 
monarch,  their  oppressor,  backed  as  that  monarch  was 
by  a  numerous,  disciplined,  and  well-appointed  army, 
bent  on  arresting  their  departure,  and  riveting  upon  them 
again  the  yoke  of  bondage  ;  the  fact  that  Moses  could  so 
arrange  this  vast  multitude  embarrassed  by  so  many  en- 
cumbrances, as  that,  in  the  midst  of  a  sterile  and  inhos- 
pitable desert  they  should  move  in  safety,  and  be  fur- 
nished with  ample  sustenance;  and  that  this  successful 
leadership,  notwithstanding  all  these  complicated  difficul- 
ties, should  be  continued  through  the  long  period  of  forty 
years,  until  he  saw  them  on  the  borders  of  a  fertile  and 
populous  country,  eager  to  take  possession,  and  now  fully 
qualified  to  do  so,  by  the  discipline  to  which  they  had 
been  so  long  subjected,  all  this  must  ever  suffice  to  place 
Moses  in  the  first  rank  of  military  leaders.  However 
this  skill  might  have  been  obtained  by  him,  certain  it  is 
that  Moses  had  it:  and  Moses  exercised  it,  not  for  the 
purpose  of  self-aggrandizement,  but  exclusively  for  the 
good  of  his  nation.  He  used  this  skill,  for  the  elevation 
of  a  tumultuous  rabble  of  slaves,  to  the  character  and 


56  THE   CHARACTER   OF   MOSES 

Standing  of  a  brave  people,  determined  on  national  exist- 
ence, independence  and  honor,  and  competent  to  win  it 
for  themselves. 

We  know,  indeed,  that  throughout  the  whole  of  his 
splendid  and  trying  career,  God  himself  sustained  and 
directed  Moses;  and  we  know,  too,  that  God  directed 
and  sustained  Cyrus,  and  Alexander.  On  the  pages  of 
history  these  men  stand  prominent,  as  great  military 
leaders.  Viewing  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case, 
Moses  is  yet  more  deserving  of  honor,  as  the  most  daring, 
skilful,  and  successful  general  of  the  age  in  which  he 
lived. 

It  would  be  strange  if  amid  the  multiplicity  of  monu- 
ments commemorative  of  the  exploits  of  Pharaohs 
and  of  Satraps,  vastly  his  inferiors  in  daring  and  in  suc- 
cess, that  no  monument  proclaiming  the  prowess  of 
Moses  should  have  survived.  Already  the  rocks  of 
Sinai  have  found  a  voice,  attesting,  somewhat  hesitating- 
ly as  yet,  it  may  be,  yet  still  attesting  the  prodigies 
wrought  for  Israel  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia.  And  if  the 
tradition  of  the  earlier  exploits  of  Moses  in  his  Ethiopian 
campaigns  should  be  authentic,  it  were  no  wonder  if  yet, 
when  the  mists  of  obscurity  that  still  enshroud  these 
Nile-valley  monuments,  shall  have  been  more  fully  dis- 
persed, it  shall  be  found  that  among  those  remoter  and 
most  ancient  monuments  in  Nubia  and  Ethiopia,  appear 
the  record  of  military  conquests  achieved  by  Moses  for 
the  Egyptian  crown, — achievements,  the  glory  of  which 
could  not  be  tarnished,  nor  the  proud  recollection  of 
them  be  willingly  obliterated  among  the  Egyptians,  even 
though  the  champion  who  had  gleaned  those  honors  for 
Egypt,  had  subsequently  abandoned  the  court  and  the 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  57 

country,  and  had  by  a  series  of  exploits  not  less  splendid 
founded  a  rival  kingdom  in  Asia.  Among  the  monu- 
ments of  the  several  Eameses,*  it  is  at  least  possible  that 
the  Ethiopian  conquests  of  Moses  may  yet  be  found  com- 
memorated. Ea,  is  a  prefix  to  many  Egyptian  names, 
of  import  equivalent  to  that  of  our  phrase,  the  royal ; 
and  of  these  several  Rameses,  may  not  some  one  yet 
prove  the  designation  of  the  Hebrew-born,  adopted  son  of 
Pharaoh's  daughter, — the  conqueror  of  Saba  and  Ethio- 
pia,— the  accepted  spouse  of  Ethiopia's  queen,  Tharbis ; 
and  designated  both  from  his  adoption  at  the  court  of 
Pharaoh,  and  from  his  royal  nuptials  in  Ethiopia, — Ra- 
Meses, — the  royal  Moses  !f 

*  Ramses  is  explained  as  meaning  begotten  of  Re,  orof  Phre,  the  "off- 
spring of  the  Sun,"  or  of  heaven.  But  since  in  Egyptian,  the  vowels 
are  often,  indeed  generally  omitted,  just  as  in  Hebrew,  without  the  points, 
Ramses,  i.  e.  Ra-meses,  presents  the  very  name  Moses,  with  the  prefix 
Ra,  indicating  royalty. 

As  to  the  distinguished  position  held  by  Moses,  see  the  testimony  of 
ancient  writers,  as  adduced  by  Mons.  Champollion  Figeac,  in  his  Egypte, 
(I'Univers  Pittoresque,)  pp.  121,  122. 

f  It  may  be  interesting  to  consult,  on  this  point,  "  Monumens  de 
I'Egypte  et  de  Nubie,  by  Champollion  le  Jeune,  vol.  i.  of  the  Plates,  and 
Plates  XI.,  XIII.,  and  XV.,  in  which  the  Pharaoh  (Ramses  V.,)  is 
styled  again  and  again,  Meses,  beloved  of  Amoun."  See  also  Osburn's 
Ancient  Egypt,  p.  14.  See  also  Rosellini,  B.  6,  PI.  CI.,  Plate  32.  4 ;  164. 
3 ;  and  Depense  XXX.,  where  the  cartouche  of  Sesostris,  or  Ramses  III. 
is  given,  whose  name  and  title  Osburn  renders  thus:  "Pharaoh  vigilant 
injustice.  coTrjpe,  Sesostris,  the  approved  of  the  Sun,  [the  beloved  of 
Amoun,  Ramses]  III."  There  is  in  these  cartouches  no  Ra.  it  is  merely 
Mcses,  beloved  of  Amoun.  See  also  the  last  line  of  royal  names  in  the 
ToMe  of  Abydos ;  see  Champollion  Figeac,  plate  47.  A  copy  of  this  table 
is  also  given  in  Dr.  Hawkes's  Egypt  and  its  Monuments,  p.  25. 

These  magnificent  delineations  of  Ramses  are  mostly  at  Ipsamboul,  in 
temples  near  the  region  of  Moses'  conquests,  and  which  were  constructed 
at  a  period  near  his  time.    (See  Champollion  Figeac,  pp.  340,  341.) 


68  THE   CHARACTER   OF   MOSES 

Not  to  dwell  on  this  conjecture,  certain  it  is,  that  we 
can  add, — as  a  statesman^  Moses  ranks  amoiig  tlie  greatest. 
He  found  his  people  oppressed,  enslaved,  and  consequent- 
ly degraded.  For  helpless  subjection  to  the  power  of 
others,  speedily  deteriorates  the  whole  man,  and  self- 
reliance  dies.  A  generation  brought  up  in  slavery,  are 
unfitted  for  freedom;  to  them,  independence  would  be 
fraught  with  curses  as  much  as  with  blessings.  Their 
children  may  be  trained  to  a  nobler  destiny,  but  the  race 
that  has  itself  grown  up  in  slavery,  can  be  elevated,  if  at 
all,  only  by  slow  degrees.  The  experience  of  centuries 
and  that  in  all  countries,  has  taught  mankind  this  lesson. 

But  Moses  saw  this,  as  by  intuition ;  and  he  laid  his 
plans,  and  made  his  arrangements  on  the  dictate  of  a 
masterly  policy,  which  was  indeed  essential  to  the  success 
of  his  noble  scheme. 

The  original  race  of  slaves  that  left  Egypt,  adults, 
under  Moses,  ever  showed  themselves  restless,  turbulent, 
— impatient  of  the  wholesome  restraints  of  law,  and  regu- 
lar government,  and  incapable  of  appreciating  the  advan- 
tages of  such  government.  This  race  passed  away  in 
the  wilderness;  and  their  sons,  trained  under  the  institu- 
tions that  were  to  distinguish  them  above  all  other 
nations,  yielded  a  cheerful  obedience  to  the  laws,  and 
fully  carried  out  the  plans  of  their  great  prophet. 

To  accomplish  such  a  task,  to  control  the  discordant 
elements  with  which  Moses  had  to  work,  and  by  his  tact 
and  management  to  raise  a  band  of  emancipated  serfs, 
and  their  children,  in  intelligence,  civilization  and  self- 
respect,  until  they  could  be  safely  settled  in  a  country  of 
their  own,  and  be  formed  into  a  community,  the  first  in 
the  world,  to  be  the  depositary  of  a  free  government, 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  59 

under  a  written  constitution,  whicli  distinctly  prescribed 
the  duties,  and  secured  the  privileges  of  all,  religious  and 
political,  public  and  private,  those  of  magistrates  and 
of  citizens  ;  and  to  effect  all  this  in  one  generation,  was 
a  work  accomplished  hut  once  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
a  statesman-like  work,  to  which  the  genius  of  Moses 
alone,  of  all  men  that  ever  lived,  has  been  found  equal. 

The  institutions  established  by  Moses  were  pre-emi- 
nently judicious,  and  admirably  adapted  to  the  character 
of  the  people ;  their  peculiar  position  as  the  sole  deposi- 
tary of  a  pure  religion  ;  a  people  to  be  kept  separate  and 
distinct  from  all  the  rest  of  the  world.  These  institutions 
were  designed  to  endure ;  and  they  have  endured.  For 
several  thousands  of  years  they  have  been  maintained 
by  the  Jews,  and  that,  too,  even  since  the  dispersion  of 
that  people  into  all  parts  of  the  globe;  and  they  still 
retain  a  vigor  that  promises  perpetuity. 

"These  institutions,"  as  one  has  well  said,  (see  Eobin- 
son's  Calmet,)  "  have  withstood  the  fury  of  persecution, 
and  the  still  more  dangerous  snares  of  seduction.  They 
are,  to  this  day,  essentially  the  same  in  China,  in  India, 
in  Persia,  and  in  Europe.  They  may  have  been  neg- 
lected, they  may  have  been  interpolated,  they  may  have 
been  abused ;  but  they  are  the  same,  and  they  are  still 
observed.  Nor  is  the  claim  of  consanguinity  and  broth- 
erhood unfelt  throughout  the  whole  race.  Despised  and 
scattered  abroad  among  all  nations,  they  are  distinct  from 
all,  and  bound  to  each  other  by  ties  which  the  lapse  of 
ages  has  not  destroyed,  and  has  hardly  weakened."  Kor 
is  it  certain,  that  even  should  the  whole  Hebrew  race 
embrace  Christianity,  every  rite  that  distinguishes  them 
as  Jews,  must  absolutely  cease  and  determine. 


60  THE   CHARACTER   OF   MOSES 

Their  three  great  annual  festivals,  when  every  adult 
male  must  attend  in  one  place  where  stood  the  altar  of 
God ;  their  great  Sabbatic  year ;  their  numerous  priest- 
hood for  the  conduct  of  the  splendid  temple  worship ; 
their  various  admirable  courts  of  justice,  and  their  mag- 
istrates nearly  all  elective,  as  well  as  their  laws  of  inher- 
itance, and  year  of  Jubilee,  were  peculiar  institutions, 
well  adapted  to  secure  their  purity,  as  a  nation  settled 
permanently  in  one  country.  All  these  might  fall  into 
disuse  on  their  dispersion  into  distant  lands ;  but  yet,  as 
Jews,  however  dispersed,  they  are  marked  as  a  distinct 
race,  and  as  one,  by  circumcision,  by  the  annual  passover, 
by  their  weekly  7th-day  sabbath,  and  by  their  synagogue 
service  for  the  reading  of  the  sacred  books  of  their 
fathers. 

Now,  a  mind  that  could  form  the  conception  of  a  govern- 
ment embodying  such  institutions  so  peculiar  and  unique, 
yet  so  influential  in  their  character,  and  so  durable  in 
their  nature ;  a  mind  that  could  and  did  devise  the  de- 
tails of  this  system,  and  the  means  for  carrying  it  out 
into  full  and  practical  operation,  with  materials  such  as 
were  presented  in  the  Hebrews  just  emerging  from 
Egyptian  bondage ;  a  system  that  should  raise  them  from 
barbarism  to  civilization  and  refinement,  that  should  suit 
their  condition  when  settled  in  a  land  that  Moses  never 
visited ;  a  system  that  should  be  still  appropriate  in  the 
height  of  their  growing  prosperity,  to  be  witnessed  only 
in  the  far-off  future ;  and  a  system  that  revolutions,  dis- 
persion and  wretchedness  cannot  overthrow,  yea,  that 
time  itself  neither  wears  out  nor  renders  obsolete; — a 
mind  which  conceived  and  executed  this  system  in  all 
its  vastness,  and  with  all  its  minute  details,  must  have 


AS   A   SCHOLAR  AND   A  STATESMAN.  61 

been  pre-eminent  for  an  exuberance  of  all  tbose  great 
qualities,  which,  when  found  even  in  a  moderate  degree, 
stamp  their  possessor  as  an  able  statesman,  and  a  man  of 
genius. 

But  it  is  when  considered  as  a  lawgiver  that  the  true  great- 
ness of  Moses  is  best  seen.  Law  is  the  slow  growth  of  ages. 
'Tis  the  index  of  public  intelligence,  the  standard  of  civ- 
ilization !  All  history  shows  that  the  advance  from  bar- 
barism to  that  condition  in  which  government  is  adminis- 
tered in  strict  accordance  to  written  law,  is  very  slow ;  it  re- 
quires a  long  course  of  years.  Laws  are  usually  enacted 
cautiously,  one  after  another,  as  the  exigencies  that  call 
for  them  arise,  and  the  alteration,  amendment,  or  repeal 
of  old  laws  is  constantly  taking  place.  Law  is  the  con- 
centrated experience  ofages,  rendered  durable  by  record. 

Moses  alone  was  blessed  with  a  mind  so  capacious, 
views  so  enlarged,  and  political  sagacity  so  keen  and  so 
profound,  that  he  produced  at  once  a  system  of  laws, 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  both,  which  settled  the  entire  gov- 
ernment of  a  new  people,  one  which  was  about  speedily 
to  become  great  and  powerful,  and  settled  it  on  a  durable 
foundation.  But  little  prepared  could  the  Jews  have 
been  to  appreciate  the  institutions  of  Moses.  They  had 
indeed  long  dwelt  in  Egypt,  and  in  daily  contact  with 
the  most  enlightened  people  then  on  earth;  but  they 
had  held  among  that  people  an  inferior  position.  A  race 
of  hard-worked,  despised  and  sorely  oppressed  serfs; 
they  had  but  just  burst  their  bonds.  Whatever  the  civ- 
ilization around  them  in  Egypt,  the  Jews  had  had  but 
little  opportunity  to  derive  benefit  from  it.  On  the  great 
subject  of  religious  opinions  and  moral  conduct,  all  na- 
tions and  all  tribes  of  that  period  were  in  deplorable 


>'^  OF  Ton^ 

'UFI7ERSITrl 


62  THE   CHARACTER  OF   MOSES 

error.  Polytheism  and  gross  idolatry  everywhere  pre- 
vailed, and  even  the  Egyptians  were  notoriously  addicted 
to  gross  superstitions,  paying  religious  homage  to  beasts, 
and  birds,  and  reptiles.  Of  the  state  of  morals  among  the 
Egyptians^  we  have  no  very  definite  accounts ;  but  among 
the  Canaanites  and  all  other  adjoining  countries,  it  was 
wretched  in  the  extreme.  This  universal  degradation 
the  Hebrews  could  not  have  entirely  escaped.  Every- 
thing in  the  people  for  whom  he  planned,  and  in  the 
condition  of  society  around  him,  was,  therefore,  adverse 
to  the  magnificent  designs  of  Moses;  and  yet  he  ma- 
tured, and  he  accomplished  these  designs ! 

The  basis  of  his  whole  system  was,  reverence  for  the  one 
only  God,  the  supreme  Ruler !  God  was  the  head  of  the 
Jewish  government.  The  worship  of  God  was  also  hom- 
age to  the  sovereign  ;  and  idolatrous  practices  were  not 
impiety  merely,  they  were  treason  against  the  state. 
Hence  the  severity  of  the  laws  Moses  enacted  against 
heathenish  practices  :  a  severity  necessary  to  the  contin- 
ued existence  of  Israel  as  a  nation,  at  the  time  and  under 
the  circumstances.  A  severity,  however,  which  gives  no 
sanction  to  bigotry  or  to  religious  intolerance  now. 

Under  the  Mosaic  code,  the  priesthood  was  assigned  to 
the  family  of  Aaron  alone  ;  while  the  whole  tribe  of  Levi 
was  devoted  to  the  subordinate  duties  of  waiting  on  the 
priesthood  in  their  sacred  services,  caring  for  the  sacred 
vessels,  the  music,  and  all  the  requisites  for  public  wor- 
ship. In  this  tribe  also,  sacred  literature  was  more  espe- 
cially cultivated,  the  law  was  diligently  cared  for,  copies 
of  it  were  multiplied  and  preserved,  its  statutes  were  in- 
terpreted and  taught  to  the  people.  The  duties  of  all  the 
several  ecclesiastical  officers,  were  minutely  prescribed, 


AS   A  SCHOLAR   AND   A   STATESMAN.  63 

and  the  maintenance  of  these  officers  was  carefully  pro- 
vided for  by  law. 

For  the  due  administration  of  public  affairs,  ample  pro- 
vision was  made.  Each  one  of  the  twelve  tribes  was,  in 
some  respects,  an  independent  community,  administering 
its  own  internal  affairs,  by  a  government  composed  of 
officers  of  its  own  selection :  while  a  general  council  of 
the  nation,  composed  of  delegates  from  each  of  the  tribes, 
guarded  the  interests  of  the  entire  confederacy. 

Through  this  national  council,  the  extraordinary  lead- 
ers, such  as  Moses,  the  judges,  and,  in  later  times,  even 
the  kings,  communicated  with  the  tribes,  and  made  their 
enactments  known  to  the  people.  The  Jewish  common- 
wealth, as  constituted  by  Moses,  was  a  confederacy  of  re- 
publics, strongly  resembling  the  complex  government  of 
these  United  States. 

Each  tribe  had  its  own  head,  or  prince^  who  was  elected 
to  this  high  office  from  among  the  descendants,  in  the  di- 
rect line,  of  the  founder  of  the  tribe.  By  the  prudent 
counsel  of  Jethro,  Moses  appointed  additional  magis- 
trates, viz.  judges,  some  over  ten,  some  over  fifty,  some 
over  a  hundred,  and  others  over  a  thousand  men :  and 
all  these  leaders  of  thousands,  or  elders,  were  associated 
together,  under  the  prince  of  the  tribe,  as  the  general 
council  of  the  tribe.  When  all  such  elders  dwelling  in 
any  city  or  neighborhood,  were  convened,  they  formed 
the  legislative  assembly  of  that  city  or  neighborhood. 
(Deut.  xix.  12  ;  xxv.  8,  9.  Judg.  viii.  14 ;  ix.  %-4:Q ;  xi. 
5.  1  Sam.  viii.  4  ;  xvi.  4.)  When  the  chief  elders  from 
all  the  tribes  were  convened  in  one  body,  (or  by  their 
duly  appointed  delegates :  see  Exod.  xix.  7  ;  xxiv.  3-8 ; 
xxiv.  31,  32.      Levit.  iv.  13;    xviii.  3-5;    ix.  5,)  they 


64  THE  CHARACTER  OF  MOSES 

formed  the  legislative  assembly  of  tlie  entire  nation.  (Judg. 
i.  1-11 ;  xi.  5  ;  xx.  12-24.  Josh,  xxiii.  1,  2  ;  xxiv.  1.) 
The  priests,  who  were  the  learned  class  in  the  commu- 
nity, were  also  hereditary  officers  in  the  state,  being 
clothed  with  civil  no  less  than  religious  functions.  They 
had  a  seat  in  this  grand  assembly.  (Exod.  xxxii.  29. 
Numb,  xxxvi.  13 ;  viii.  6-26.)  The  priests  were  the 
authorized  interpreters  of  the  law,  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
both.  This  great  national  assembly,  or  Comitia,  was 
summoned  by  special  messengers,  and  convened  before 
the  tabernacle  in  early  times.  They  exercised  the  chief 
rights  of  sovereignty.  They  declared  war,  concluded 
peace,>  ratified  treaties,  appointed  civil  rulers,  generals, 
and,  in  later  times,  even  the  kings.  The  oath  of  office 
was  administered  by  the  judge,  {e.  g.  Joshua  or  Samuel,) 
and  in  later  times  by  the  king.  The  king  himself  was 
sworn  into  office  by  the  Comitia,  acting  in  the  name  of 
the  people.  (Exod.  xix.  7  ;  xxiv.  2-8.  Josh.  ix.  18-21. 
Judg,  XX.  1 ;  xi.  14;  xx.  13-20.  1  Sam.  x.  24;  xi.  14,  &c.) 
In  a  time  of  peculiar  difficulty  from  sedition,  Moses 
selected  seventy  distinguished  men  from  among  the  dif 
ferent  tribes,  to  act  as  his  counsellors  in  affiiirs  of  state. 
These  were  called  the  Sanhednm.  (Numb,  xi.)  These, 
however,  were  not  judges.  They  were  appointed  for  a 
specific  purpose,  and  their  office  ended  with  the  life  of 
Moses.  From  the  death  of  Moses  till  the  captivity,  we 
find  no  mention  of  a  sanhedrim.  After  the  captivity,  in- 
deed, in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  the  Jews  appointed  a 
sanhedrim  of  seventy-two  elders,  over  whom  presided 
the  High  Priest.  But  this  sanhedrim,  which  in  later 
ages  acted  as  the  supreme  council  of  the  nation,  is  by  no 
means  to  be  confounded  with  the  sanhedrim  of  Moses. 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  65 

The  trials  conducted  before  the  several  law  courts, 
were  usually  held  at  the  gate  of  the  city,  an  unencum- 
bered space  of  public  resort.  To  insure  openness^  and 
due  deliberation,  no  capital  case  could  lawfully  be  tried 
at  night.  Hence  courts  were  usually  held  in  the  morn- 
ing. ISTor  was  it  lawful  to  examine  a  cause,  pass  sen- 
tence, and  put  that  sentence  in  execution  the  same  day. 
In  the  trial  of  Jesus  Christ  all  these  merciful  legal  pre- 
cautions were  disregarded ! 

These  several  institutions  were  admirably  adapted  to 
the  character  and  the  circumstances  of  the  Jews,  and  were 
well  calculated  to  accustom  them  to  the  government  of 
established  law,  the  only  guarantee  for  order  and  freedom. 

There  is,  however,  one  institution  established  by 
Moses,  which  discovers  a  wonderful  tact,  in  turning  ap- 
parently formidable  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  rule  of 
law,  into  a  means  for  establishing  it  the  more  effectually. 
I  refer  to  the  Cities  of  Kefuge. 

From  time  immemorial  it  had  been  deemed  the  duty 
of  the  mah  next  of  kin  to  a  person  slain  by  violence, 
to  avenge  his  death  on  the  slayer.  He  was  called  the 
hlood-avenger.  If  he  failed  to  punish  the  killer  of  his 
kinsman,  he  was  accounted  infamous.  In  a  rude  state  of 
society,  this  custom  must  be  highly  useful ;  but  it  is  ob- 
viously liable  to  great  abuses.  Homicide  is  not  always 
murder. 

The  province  of  established  tribunals  of  justice  it  is,  to 
ascertain  not  only  the  fact  of  the  slaying,  and  the  person 
of  the  slayer,  but  also  the  intention,  criminal  or  other- 
wise. If  the  slaying  was  accidental,  or  necessary 
to  self-defence,  then  it  was  not  criminal ;  but  of 
this    the    blood-avenger  could   not   judge   impartially. 


66  THE   CHARACTER  OF  MOSES 

His  kinsman  being  slain,  his  part  it  was  to  avenge  him, 
and  infamy  covered  him  if  he  slew  not  the  slayer. 
The  fact  of  the  slaying  was  all  he  looked  at ;  of  its  justi- 
fiableness  he  was  not,  and  he  could  not  be  a  competent 
judge.  The  person  of  the  slayer  once  known,  he  must 
slay  hiniyOT  live  in  infamy.  To  remedy  the  fearful  abuses 
to  which  this  custom  must  always  be  liable,  Moses  resort- 
ed to  a  singular  e:jtpedient. 

He  appointed  six  cities  of  refuge,  three  on  each  side 
of  the  Jordan  ;  to  these  cities  straight  roads  were  to  be 
opened  from  every  part  of  the  country.  A  man  who  had 
slain  any  person,  must  flee  to  the  nearest  of  these  cities 
of  refuge,  which  were  all  placed  under  the  control  of  the 
Priests  and  Levites.  If  found  by  the  blood-avenger  out- 
side of  the  city,  he  could  be  lawfully  slain  ;  but  so  long 
as  he  remained  within  the  city  of  refuge,  he  was  safe 
from  the  immediate  stroke  of  the  blood-avenger.  In  that 
city  he  must  abide  until  duly  tried  before  a  legal  tribu- 
nal, and  his  guilt  or  innocence  determined.  If  proved 
guilty  of  wilful  murder,  he  was  forthwith  surrendered  to 
the  blood-avenger,  to  be  by  him  slain.  In  such  case,  the 
death  of  the  convicted  murderer  was  inevitable.  No 
sanctuary  could  shelter  the  convicted  murderer,  and  no 
commutation  was  admitted. 

If,  on  trial,  acquitted  of  intentional  murder,  he  was 
still  required  to  d^^'ell  in  the  city  of  refuge  during  his 
whole  life,  unless  the  High  Priest  should  die ;  on  the 
occurrence  of  this  event,  the  homicide  might  fearlessly 
return  to  his  own  home,  the  blood-avenger  having  no 
longer  any  legal  right  to  molest  him. 

Thus,  by  this  singular  institution,  Moses  extended  no 
shield  to  the  guilty,  he  did  not  aim  to  crush  at  once  the 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  67 

spirit  of  private  vengeance ;  but  he  sagaciously  availed 
himself  of  that  spirit,  and  of  the  custom  to  which  it  had 
given  birth,  to  induce  the  criminal  murderer,  and  the 
unfortunate  homicide,  alike,  to  throw  themselves  on  the 
protection  of  law  for  security  from  immediate  pursuit  and 
destruction,  and  for  a  fair  and  open  trial  afterwards. 
The  very  custom  and  the  deep  feelings  which  would 
seem  to  threaten  insuperable  opposition  to  the  empire 
of  law,  and  the  action  of  regular  tribunals,  were  thus 
skilfully  turned  into  important  auxiliaries,  to  insure  the 
influence  of  law,  and  establish  the  authority  of  its  tribu- 
nals. The  Mosaic  law  respecting  the  cities  of  refuge,  was  a 
masterly  stroke  of  legislative  policy. 

But  it  is  the  moral  laiVj  briefly  expressed,  in  the  ten  com- 
mandments,— tJie  decalogue,  as  recorded  in  Exod.  ch.  xx., 
that  yields  to  Moses  the  palm  of  matchless  legislative  wisdom. 

The  teachings  of  sages  and  philosophers,  on  the  subject 
of  human  duty,  have  usually,  in  every  age  and  country, 
been  prolix  and  obscure,  and  so  shrouded  in  mystery  as 
to  be  nearly  unintelligible  to  the  great  mass  of  mankind. 
But  in  the  moral  law  first  promulgated  by  Moses,  we 
have  just  the  reverse  of  all  this.  In  this  inimitable 
document,  we  find  the  entire  range  of  human  duties 
comprised  in  a  compass  so  brief,  that  a  child  may  commit 
the  whole  to  memory  in  a  few  hours  ;  and  yet  so  compre- 
hensive is  this  law,  that  it  covers  the  entire  field  of  duty. 
No  one  duty  to  God  or  man  is  here  omitted.  Ko  one  is 
there  of  the  many  forms  of  vice,  or  gradations  in  crime, 
which  is  not  herein  unequivocally  condemned. 

Brief  though  this  wonderful  document  is,  it  is  yet 
perfectly  intelligible  to  all.  Each  duty  is  herein  so 
clearly  defined,  and  so  fully  set  forth,  that  the  little 


68  THE  CHARACTER  OF  MOSES 

child,  the  superstitious  idolater,  and  the  rude  barbarian 
as  well  as  the  philosopher  and  the  man  of  science,  may 
hence  learn  to  whom  he  owes  his  being, — the  service  ap- 
propriate to  that  great  Maker,  and  all  the  duties  towards 
his  fellow-men,  which  spring  from  his  relation  to  them 
and  to  God,  our  common  Creator.  This  peerless  docu- 
ment, while  it  develops  principles  which  may  amaze 
and  charm  the  strongest  intellect,  and  the  most  cultivated 
mind,  does  also  lay  down  its  positions  so  distinctly,  and 
detail  duty  so  clearly  and  definitely,  that  its  meaning  is 
perfectly  obvious  to  the  humblest  capacity  and  the  most 
ordinary  attention!  Moreover,  this  law  accords  in  all 
respects  to  the  convictions  of  right,  inherent  in  every 
human  breast. 

It  is  a  law  adapted  not  to  any  one  age  of  the  world  ex- 
clusively, nor  to  any  one  race  of  men,  nor  to  any  one 
class  in  society !  It  is  pre-eminently,  the  law  for  man^  for 
the  whole  human  family,  in  all  ages,  in  all  countries,  and 
in  every  condition  of  life! 

No  revolutions  in  the  political  world,  no  rise  or  fall  of 
powerful  dynasties,  no  change  in  the  aspect  of  society, 
can  ever,  either  add  to  the  force,  or  impair  the  authority 
of  this  noble  law.  It  is  based  on  principles,  and  it  deals 
with  relations  that  appertain  to  human  nature,  and  are 
unchangeable.  To  the  white  man  and  the  black  ;  to  the 
monarch  on  his  throne,  and  to  the  beggar  in  his  hovel ;  to 
the  exalted  leader  of  a  nation  of  freemen,  and  to  the 
slave  at  his  meanest  drudgery ;  to  the  statesman  loaded 
with  the  cares  of  government,  and  to  the  obscurest 
of  the  multitude  whose  political  destpy  he  controls ;  to 
the  profound  philosopher ;  to  the  applauded  author  of 
brilliant  discoveries  in  science,  and  to  the  most  illiterate 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  6? 

peasant  tliat  plods  thouglitlessly  at  his  daily  toil,  this  law 
is  invariably  and  alike  applicable !  No  lapse  of  ages  can 
render  it  obsolete ;  no  advances  in  science  can  impair  its 
lustre,  or  weaken  its  force  :  no  change  of  circumstances 
can  make  it  inapplicable  or  inappropriate.  So  long  as 
man  is  man,  dependent  as  a  creature  of  God,  and  a 
member  of  the  social  body,  this  law  must  retain  its  force, 
and  be  always  appropriate.  So  based  in  truth  are  the 
principles  on  which  it  rests,  that  it  never  can  lose  its  au- 
thority over  a  single  human  being. 

Some  writers  there  are,  who  would  have  us  believe 
that  Moses  did  not  originate,  but  that  he  borrowed  from 
the  Egyptians,  his  code  of  morals,  his  pure  Theism,  and 
his  most  important  regulations ;  and  this,  forsooth,  be- 
cause we  are  told  '"''Moses  toas  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of 
the  Egyptians^ 

This  position  is  demonstrably  false. 

That  Moses  was  a  perfect  master  of  all  the  wisdom  of 
Egypt,  is  true ;  and  so  the  Bible  asserts.  But  it  does  not 
thence  follow,  that  he  possessed  no  other  knowledge 
besides  that  derived  from  Egypt.  It  is  no  unheard-of 
thing  for  a  scholar  to  master  all  the  knowledge  that  his 
teacher  can  impart,  and  afterwards  to  accumulate^  upon 
this,  much  larger  and  more  valuable  knowledge,  by  his 
own  independent  researches.  This,  we  know,  Moses 
did ;  and  for  this  his  long  retirement  in  Midian  furnished 
time,  and  ample  opportunity. 

Moreover,  the  boasted  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  has 
been  much  exaggerated:  for,  whether  we  judge  by  the 
report  of  that  wisdom  furnished  in  the  classical  writers 
of  ancient  Greece,  or  from  the  testimony  yielded  by  the 
records  of  the  Egyptian  sages  themselves,  as  now  opened 


70  THE   CHARACTER  OF   MOSES 

to  the  world  in  the  interpreted  hieroglyphics  of  their 
gorgeous  temples,  palaces  and  tombs,  and  in  their  ritual 
of  the  dead,  we  find  nothing  to  sustain  this  assertion. 
Some  important  moral  duties  are  therein  recognized :  a 
future  life  seems  to  be  there  shadowed  forth.*  But,  the 
soul  of  the  Mosaic  system,  i.  e.  the  existence  of  one  sole 
Supreme  God,  a  pure  spirit,  and,  the  common  brother- 
hood of  all  mankind,  as  the  creatures  of  one  God,  the 
children  of  one  Heavenly  Father,  that  is  not  found  there. 
Over  all  the  acres  of  surface  covered  by  the  hieroglyphic 
writing  and  the  brilliant  picturing  of  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians, which  still  exist  in  wonderful  preservation  among 
her  monuments,  you  look  in  vain  for  a  recognition  of  the 
one  only  OodI  No  sign,  no  symbol,  no  token  of  this 
one  fundamental  truth,  is  there  found.  (See  Sir  G.  Wil- 
kinson's Mann,  and  Oust.  2d  series,  vol.  i.  p.  178.)  On 
this  subject  the  testimony  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Pritchard 
is  clear  and  explicit.  In  his  learned  work,  the  Analysis 
of  Egyptian  Mythology,  p.  406,  he  says :  "  With  respect 
to  theology^  no  two  systems  can  be  more  directly  opposed 
to  each  other  than  the  Mosaic  doctrine  was  to  that  of  the 
Egyptians." 

Again,  p.  408,  Dr.  P.  remarks : — "  In  the  most  striking 
features  in  the  whole  system  of  civil  regulations^  the  plan 
adopted  by  the  Hebrew  lawgiver,  stands  in  direct  oppo- 
sition to  the  polity  of  the  Egyptians." 

*  I  say  seems  to  be  there  shadowed  forth.  See  Wilkinson's  2d  series, 
Plates  87  and  88,  and  the  description,  vol.  ii.  pp.  442-448.  See  also  the 
magnificent,  and  very  curious  Plate  of  the  Judgment  of  the  soul  as  given 
by  Rosellini,  Dispensa  XXXVIII.  m.  d.  c.  Plate  LXVI. ;  and  see  Cham- 
poUion,  Monumens  de  I'Egypte  et  de  Nubie,  vol.  iii.  of  the  Plates,  and 
Plate  272.    This  representation  is  found  at  Thebes,  Biban,  El  Molouk. 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  71 

Dr.  Bedford,  in  his  useful  book,  entitled  ''  Holy  Scrip- 
ture verified,"  remarks,  p.  60,  (Lond.  ed.  1837,)  "Ko  sort 
of  analogy  can  be  traced  between  the  theory  (of  cosmog- 
ony,) which  Moses  has  left  us,  and  any  of  the  speculations 
which  the  Egyptians  indulged."^ 

We  may  add  further,  that  an  imitation  of  the  rites  or 
the  doctrines  of  the  Egyptians,  introduced  by  Moses  into 
the  institutions  he  gave  to  the  Jews,  would  have  been 
next  to  impossible,  because  it  would  have  tended  to  de- 
stroy their  confidence  in  him  as  an  inspired  prophet.  On 
the  conviction  felt  by  them  that  he  was  a  prophet  in- 
spired by  Jehovah,  rested  the  sole  authority  of  Moses 
over  the  Jews.  He  denounced  the  customs  of  the  Egyp- 
tians. An  inspired  prophet  could  not  consistently  borrow 
religious  observances  from  a  people  whom  he  denounced 
as  impious  idolaters. 

*  The  doctrine  of  the  Egyptians  as  to  the  continued  existence  of  the 
soul  after  death,  was  not  that  of  immortality,  properly  speaking,  but  of 
metempsychosis ;  i.  e.  a,  fresh  birth  into  another  body,  and  then  another, 
&c.  After  it  has  gone  through  all  the  terrestrial,  marine,  and  winged 
animals,  it  again  enters  a  human  body.  (Herodotus,  ii.  123 :  see  also 
Wilkinson,  Rosellini,  and  Charapollion,  quoted  above.)  This  circuit  was 
supposed  to  occupy  3000  years ;  like  the  doctrine  of  the  Indian  philoso- 
phy. (Faber,  Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  i.  pp.  14,  111  and  113.)  That  it  might 
be  ready  to  receive  the  returning  soul,  at  the  end  of  this  3000  years,  the 
body  was  embalmed  with  so  great  care. 

What  resemblance  has  this  to  any  teaching  of  Moses '?  Moses  has  been 
charged  with  borrowing  from  the  Egyptians,  the  idea  of  the  Urim  and 
Thummira.  (See  Diod.  Sic.  i.  65,  5,  B.  i.  ch.  48.)  Gesenius  refers  to  this. 
Grotius  turned  the  tables,  by  charging  this  imitation  upon  the  later  Egyp- 
tians. He  maintains  that  they  borrowed  this  from  the  Jews.  "  Imitati 
sunt  hoc,  (i.  e.  the  breast-plate  of  the  Jewish  High  Priest,)  sed  ut  pueri 
virorum  res,  imitantur  Egyptii.*    (De  Veritate,  i.  16.) 

•  See  an  able  examination  of  this  charge  in  Tompkin's  Hulsean  Prize  Essay  for  1849, 
pp.  80-92. 


72  THE   CHARACTER  OP   MOSES 

Sir  William  Jones  also,  the  great  Oriental  scholar,  has 
remarked,  "There  is  no  shadow  of  foundation  for  the 
opinion  that  Moses  hoiTOwed  the  first  part  of  Genesis  from  the 
literature  of  Egypt J^  (id.  p.  60.)  He  adds,  "  Still  less  can 
the  adamantine  pillars  of  our  Christian  faith  be  moved 
by  the  result  of  any  debates  as  to  the  comparative  an- 
tiquity of  the  Hindoos  and  Egyptians,  or  of  any  inquiry 
into  the  Indian  theology."  (id.) 

The  ancient  Egyptians  were  an  ingenious  people,  re- 
fined and  luxurious  in  their  manners  undoubtedly.  But, 
of  originating  the  ideas  with  which,  as  its  living  spirit, 
its  pervading  essence,  the  Mosaic  moral  code  is  replete, 
Egypt,  with  all  its  splendor  and  with  all  its  wisdom,  was 
(for  all  that  has  yet  been  brought  to  light)  as  utterly  in- 
capable, as  would  be  the  savage  warriors,  the  aborigines 
of  our  own  American  forests ;  as  are  the  Caffres  and  the 
Hottentots  of  South  Africa  ! 

That  the  sublime  doctrines,  the  comprehensive  views, 
the  pure  morality  and  the  wonderfully  accurate  science* 
with  which  the  books  of  Moses  are  replete,  could  have 
been  obtained  by  him  from  the  ingenious  authors  of  the 
mythological  delineations,  still  found  adorning  the  mag- 
nificent temples,  the  splendid  palaces,  and  the  elaborately 
wrought  tombs  now  standing  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile, 
is  merely  and  simply  an  utter  impossibility. \ 

♦  The  learned  Adrien  Balbi  has  said  : — "  No  monument,  either  histori- 
cal or  astronomical,  has  yet  been  able  to  prove  the  books  of  Moses  false  : 
but,  on  the  contrary,  with  those  books  agree,  in  the  most  remarkable 
manner,  the  results  obtained  by  the  most  learned  philologues  and  the 
profoundest  geometricians."  (Atlas  Ethnographique  du  Globe,  Mappe- 
monde.  Eth.  1.) 

t  Mr,  Tompkins,  in  his  Hulsean  Prize  Essay,  1849,  says,  (p.  79,)  "  The 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  73 

How  wonderful,  then,  must  have  been  the  mind  of  him 
who  first  arranged  and  embodied  the  ideas  that  make  up 
this  great  law.  This  law  has  withstood  the  revolutions  of 
time,  the  shock  of  determined  opposition,  and  the  scrutiny 
of  jealousy.  The  cavils  of  objectors,  and  the  reflections 
and  researches  of  the  learned,  have  failed  to  discover  in 
the  moral  precepts  of  this  law  any  one  defect,  or  to  make 
upon  it  any  improvement. 

It  has  been  the  admiration  of  the  ablest  legislators  in 
all  subsequent  ages,  and  it  has  been  used  as  the  model 
after  which  the  most  approved  and  successful  laws  have 
been  framed.  It  embodies  the  substance  of  all  sound 
legislation,  and  it  presents  the  essential  germ  of  all  true 
religion.  As  it  was  the  earliest,  so  it  has  been  found  to 
be  the  wisest,  the  noblest,  the  completest  of  all  laws. 
Issuing  as  it  did  in  a  remote,  a  superstitious,  and  a  bar- 
barous age,  it  presents  an  embodiment  of  wisdom  never 
since  surpassed,  never  since  equalled  in  any  age  ! 

Great  discoveries  are  usually  made  gradually.  A 
glimpse  of  some  great  truth  is  first  obtained :  it  is  con- 
jectured rather  than  known;  and  time,  and  thought, 
and  labor,  must  perfect  the  discovery.  But  in  this  in- 
stance the  discovery  was  made  at  once :  the  great  truths 
of  morality  and  religion  burst  forth  upon  mankind  in  all 
their  glory,  like  the  sun  rising  brightly  on  the  morning 
sky.  The  system  was  given  to  the  world  by  Moses  at 
once  clear,  well-defined,  perfect,  evincing  itself  to  be  im- 

sublime  truths  of  Revelation  have  as  logical  a  connection  with  the  abom- 
inations of  Egypt,  as  they  have  with  the  nebulous  theory  of  Hagel." 

And  evenBunsen,  in  speaking  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Egyptians,  says, 
(p.  49,  vol.  i.)  "  These  contain  no  history  of  the  Egyptian  people  as  do  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  The  idea  of  the  people,  and  still  more  of 
the  people's  God,  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  is  wanting." 

4 


74  THE   CHARACTER   OF   MOSES 

mutable  truth,  by  its  universal  applicability,  at  all  times 
and  to  all  men,  of  all  races,  everywhere.  'Twas  no  rude 
conjecture;  'twas  a  complete  discovery.  ''Twos  a  heav- 
enly birth.  'Twas  the  true  prototype  of  that  beautiful  old 
fable  of  classical  Greece.  Pallas,  the  embodiment  of  wis- 
dom, springing  forth  quick,  matured,  and  armed  cap-a- 
pie,  from  the  brow  of  Jupiter,  or  from  the  Supreme  In- 
tellect. Plain  it  is  then,  that  the  decalogue  is  a  monument 
of  wisdom^  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  mankind  I  Hence 
it  may  be  safely  affirmed : — 

Such  was  the  genius  of  Moses ^  that  he^  more  than  any 
other  man,  has  influenced  the  destiny  of  mankind. 

Every  now  and  then  men  have  appeared  in  human  so- 
ciety, endowed  with  minds  so  vigorous,  active,  and  com- 
manding, as,  that  they  have  moulded  the  opinions,  and 
controlled  the  intellectual  movements  of  their  own  age,  and 
of  succeeding  generations.  These  were  the  master-spir- 
its of  their  age.  Such  were  Homer  and  Aristotle,  Soc- 
rates and  Plato,  Demosthenes  and  Caesar,  each  in  his  pe- 
culiar sphere  of  influence.  Such,  too,  were  Charlemagne, 
and  but  lately.  Napoleon,  Bacon,  Newton,  and  Luther, 
each  in  his  own  department  of  action ;  but  Moses  has 
shown  himself  the  great  master-spirit,  not  of  one  age, 
but  of  all  ages,  and  of  all  nations,  too ! 

His  institutions  moulded  the  character  and  shaped  the 
destiny  of  the  entire  Jewish  nation,  certainly.  The  pure 
religion  he  taught,  and  the  admirable  moral  precepts  he 
laid  down,  were,  indeed,  shut  up  for  ages  among  that  one 
people.  But  they  have  gradually  spread  abroad  among 
mankind,  and  have  proved  most  influential  in  further- 
ing the  progress  of  civilization  and  human  happiness! 
Christianity,  the  religion  of  the  most  intelligent  and  en- 


AS  A  SCHOLAK  AND  A  STATESMAN.  75 

terprising  nations  on  the  earth,  is  founded  on  the  religion 
of  Moses.  From  him,  also,  Mohammed  borrowed  his  dis- 
tinguishing religious  tenets,  and  all  of  his  ethics  that  are 
valuable ;  and  Mohammedanism  is  the  religion  of  a  large 
portion  of  Asia,  and  of  many  tribes  and  nations  of  Africa, 
while  the  laws  enacted  by  Moses,  and  especially  the  law 
of  the  Ten  Commandments,  constitute  the  acknowledged 
basis  of  all  wise  and  effective  legislation  in  every  civil- 
ized country  under  heaven ! 

Nor  must  we  overlook  the  spirit  of  liberty  pervading 
the  government  Moses  established,  with  its  officers  and 
its  magistrates  all  selected  by  the  suffrages  of  the  people, 
over  whom,  when  chosen,  they  ruled.  On  this  point  Dr. 
Pritchard  (Anal  Myihol.  Egyipt.  p.  408)  has  remarked : — 
"  The  founders  of  the  Egyptian  civil  regulations  made 
it  their  chief  endeavor  to  depress  the  masses  in  society,  and 
to  elevate  the/ez/J  in  wealth  and  power.  On  the  contrary, 
the  system  of  society  established  by  Moses  was  one  of 
perfect  equality ;  not  the  casual  result  of  circumstances, 
but  this  was  the  object  which  Moses  purposely  con- 
trived a  great  part  of  his  civil  institutions  to  uphold." 
The  Hebrews  were  all  required  to  regard  each  other  as 
brethren. 

By  these  institutions  a  spirit  of  freedom  was  awakened 
in  the  heart  of  the  Jewish  nation,  which  never  perished, 
and  which  rarely  slept.  It  led  to  deeds  of  heroic  daring, 
and  of  surpassing  endurance,  in  resistance  against  the 
oppressions  of  tyranny,  when  the  rights  of  conscience 
were  invaded.  The  reiterated  and  daring  struggles  of 
the  Jews  for  religious  freedom  have,  in  almost  all  ages, 
presented  to  mankind  an  impressive  spectacle.  Christi- 
anity perpetuated  this  spirit,  and  raised  it  yet  higher. 


76  THE   CHARACTER  OF   MOSES 

Popular  elections  and  popular  representative  assemblies 
were  introduced  from  the  synagogue  into  the  church. 

"When  it  was  attempted,  oppression  was  resisted  unto 
the  death.  And  who  can  tell  how  far  the  freedom  now 
enjoyed  among  many  nations,  and  extending  more  widely 
every  year,  may  be  the  offspring  of  that  spirit  of  liberty 
that  has  ever  animated  the  church,  and  the  Jewish  na- 
tion before  it  ? 

The  task  of  fully  tracing  out  the  influence  exerted  on 
the  world,  and  the  benefits  conferred  on  man  by  the 
Jewish  nation,  in  true  religion,  pure  morals,  sound  legis- 
lation, and  in  extending  the  spirit  of  religious  independ- 
ence and  of  political  freedom,  has  yet  to  be  performed. 
Trace  their  entire  history,  and  the  Jewish  nation  will  be 
found  to  exhibit  claims  to  the  admiration  and  to  the  grat- 
itude of  mankind,  as  the  earliest  and  the  most  unyield- 
ing advocates  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  and  the  boldest 
champions  of  freedom  the  world  has  ever  beheld ! 

Its  obligation  to  the  Jews  has  never  yet  been  acknowl- 
edged by  the  world,  nor  even  appreciated.  And  I,  for 
one,  count  it  an  honor  to  the  American  republic,  and  to 
the  age  in  which  we  live,  that  an  act  of  tardy  justice  has 
at  length  been  done  to  this  long  oppressed  but  noble  race, 
in  that  the  Secretary  of  State  (Mr.  Webster)  has  recently 
set  a  proud  example  to  the  nations  of  the  earth,  in  refus- 
ing to  ratify  a  treaty  with  a  foreign  power,  on  the  sole 
ground  that  that  treaty  made  invidious  distinctions  ad- 
verse to  the  race  of  Abraham !  All  honor  to  the  name 
of  Daniel  Webster  therefor ! 

Nor  can  we  forget  that  all  the  good  conferred  on  the 
world  by  and  through  the  Jews,  is  a  direct  result  of  the 
institutions  established,  and  the  truths  promulgated  by 


AS   A  SCHOLAR  AND  A   STATESMAN.  H 

the  Jewish  lawgiver  Moses/  Yiew  this  man  in  what 
light  you  may,  and  he  presents  the  most  splendid  char- 
acter on  record ! 

As  an  individual,  he  was  virtuous  and  pure ;  a  genuine 
patriot,  zealous  and  untiring,  firm  and  self-possessed ;  a 
profoundly  learned  man,  and  an  accomplished  writer  ;  a 
successful  general,  and  a  pre-eminently  able  statesman  ; 
a  wise  lawgiver,  and  a  man  of  commanding  genius  be- 
yond all  that  ever  lived.  Moses  has  done  more  than 
any  one  man,  and  more  than  any  combination  of  men 
ever  did,  to  influence  the  condition,  and  to  improve  the 
character,  not  of  his  own  peculiar  nation  only,  but  of  all 
nations ! 

Thus  distinguished,  Moses  stands  forth  to  view  as  a 
man  of  pre-eminent  worth,  of  incomparable  mind,  of 
matchless  attainments,  of  wisdom  unexampled!  How 
suitable  it  was,  then,  that  such  a  man  should  have  been 
honored  to  act  as  the  mouth-piece  of  heaven,  to  proclaim 
to  men  their  duties,  and  prepare  them  to  receive  the 
higher  gift  of  salvation,  afterwards  made  known  in  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  And  in  fact,  to  adopt  the  language  of 
another,  (Dr.  Bedford,  Hoi.  Scrip.  Verified,  p.  16,)  "  The 
brief  statements  given  in  the  first  few  paragraphs  of  the 
books  of  Moses,  imply  a  knowledge  which  could  not  have 
been  acquired  by  any  of  those  means  which  men  possess. 
They  display  an  insight  into  the  laws  and  acts  of  nature, 
which  it  is  impossible  to  ascribe  to  the  individual  writer, 
or  to  the  people  among  whom  he  received  his  education. 
So  far  as  great  truths  and  universal  principles  of  nature 
can  be  discovered  by  human  effort,  we  'know  perfectly 
well  that  great  labor,  cautious  investigation,  patient  re- 
search, and  much  time  are  demanded.     They  require  a 


78  THE   CHARACTER   OF   MOSES 

large  induction  of  particulars,  and  a  great  accumulation 
.of  facts,  before  they  can  be  securely  and  confidently  as- 
serted. It  is  a  rare  (one  might  say  a  totally  unheard-of) 
case,  for  such  principles  or  truths  to  be  brought  to  ma- 
turity by  a  single  mind."  In  fact,  it  never  has  been 
done.  "  The  first,  in  general,  merely  suggests  them. 
Others,  and  usually  in  a  long  succession,  verify  and  prove 
them,  in  all  their  bearings." 

"  When,  therefore,  we  perceive  how  slowly  great  prin- 
ciples and  general  laws  are  discovered,  even  by  the  most 
comprehensive  and  accomplished  minds,  in  the  present 
day,  it  must  appear  altogeOier  incredible  that  Moses  should 
have  ascertained  all  the  great  natural  truths  which  he 
records,  by  his  own  researches,  or  that  he  should  have  de- 
rived them  from  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians !"  (p.  17.) 

The  information  imparted  to  us  by  Moses  upon  these 
recondite  subjects,  is  of  so  peculiar  a  character — it  is  so 
accurate,  so  comprehensive,  and  it  so  entirely  anticipates 
all  that  has  been  brought  to  light  by  science,  even  down 
to  this  very  hour,  that  it  is  impossible  to  attribute  it  to  tlie 
ordinary  sources  of  human  knowledge  !  Moses  was,  beyond 
denial,  a  man  of  transcendent  genius.  But  no  mere  genius 
could  possibly  have  accumulated  the  knowledge  his 
writings  embody.  There  is,  to  this  day,  no  theory  ex- 
tant as  to  the  origin  of  the  world,  that  is  even  plausible, 
which  does  not  assume  as  its  basis  the  very  principles 
first  laid  down  by  Moses  alone.  Add  to  this  his  theology, 
so  simple,  so  sublime,  so  rational ;  add,  also,  his  inimita- 
ble code  of  morals,  and  the  evidence  is  complete.  There  is 
no  possible  way  of  accounting  for  this  vast,  this  amazing, 
this  superhuman  wisdom  of  Moses,  but  by  acceding  to 
his  own  statement — a  statement  sustained  by  other  direct, 


AS  A  SCHOLAR  AND  A  STATESMAN.  79 

varied,  and  conclusive  proofs — Moses  was  a  prophet — ^he 
wrote  just  as  lie  was  inspired  of  God  to  write. 

How  fully  entitled,  then,  to  our  cordial  reception  and 
our  implicit  confidence,  are  the  precepts  of  a  religious 
teacher  so  pre-eminently  endowed  and  gifted  of  heaven 
as  was  Moses !  And  how  puny  are  the  powers,  and 
how  contemptible  in  comparison  are  the  teachings  of  the 
pigmy  opponents,  who,  in  our  day,  would  seek  to  sub 
vert  the  authority  of  Moses  !  By  every  competent  and 
impartial  investigator,  Moses  must  be  acknowledged, 
and  that  quite  independently  of  his  divine  commission, 
to  be  the  Father  of  History,  and  the  Founder  of  Litera- 
ture :  and  how  our  reverence  for  his  character,  and  our 
esteem  for  his  writings  should  rise,  when  wt?  are  assured 
also  that  Moses  was,  under  God's  own  guidance,  promul- 
gator of  the  only  true  religion — the  originator  of  all 
sound  jurisprudence — the  great  Teacher  of  pure  morals — 
yea,  that  Moses  was  also  the  planner  and  the  author  of 
the  first  truly  popular  government  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth. 

If  George  Washington  is  justly  honored  by  a  great 
nation  as  the  Father  of  his  emancipated  country,  much 
more  should  Moses  be  honored  by  all^  not  only  as  the  first 
and  the  most  distinguished  of  all  the  prophets  of  God, 
but  also  as  the  Instructor  and  the  Benefactor  of  the  whole 
Family  of  Mankind! 


LECTUEE    II. 

NECESSITY   FOR    REVELATION. 
Acts  xvii.  23.—"  To  the  unknown  God." — 'Ayvumi^  0c^. 

To  the  unknown  God  I  What  a  designation !  And 
this  was  the  inscription  adorning  the  face  of  an  altar  seen 
bj  the  Apostle  Paul,  in  the  very  heart  of  Athens,  the 
centre  and  focus  of  the  refinement,  wealth,  literature  and 
piety  of  all  Greece  I 

There  it  stood,  open  to  the  notice  of  all :  and  that  such 
altar,  bearing  such  inscription,  did  anciently  stand  in 
the  heart  of  Athens,  is  attested  by  several  writers  of 
classical  antiquity.  It  was  the  memorial,  we  are  told,  of 
a  fearful  pestilence,  stayed  by  the  intervention  of  some 
unascertained  power,  after  all  the  deities  of  the  Grecian 
Pantheon  had  been  supplicated  in  vain  I 

There  it  stood ! — a  memento  of  deliverance,  but  a  token, 
also,  of  ignorance ! — of  ignorance  on  matters  the  most 
deeply  interesting  :  ignorance  too,  prevailing  amongst  a 
people  the  most  polished,  the  most  learned,  the  most 
philosophic  of  all  antiquity !  That  majestic  altar  at 
Athens,  that  mysterious  inscription,  "  to  the  unknown 
Ood  /"  was  a  palpable  indication  of  the  necessity  for  a  divine 
Revelation  to  man  !     So  at  least,  the  great  Apostle  to  the 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  81 

Gentiles  evidently  regarded  it ;  for  he  seized  the  occasion 
furnished  by  his  arraignment  before  the  august  court  of 
the  Areopagus,  to  present  to  his  philosophic  audience,  a 
brief  outline  of  the  doctrines  of  Kevelation,  respecting  one 
God,  the  Creator  of  all,  the  common  brotherhood  of  all 
the  races  of  mankind,  and  the  duty  of  all  to  render  a 
pure  and  spiritual  homage  to  their  common  Creator. 
"  Whom  ye  ignorantly  worship^  Him  declare  I  unto  youP'' 

If  the  subtle  Stoics,  the  polished  Epicureans,  and  the 
philosophers  of  the  Areopagus  at  Athens^  needed,  in 
matters  of  religion,  to  be  instructed  by  a  divinely  in- 
spired teacher,  much  more  must  the  great  bulk  of  man- 
kind need  it!  Hence  the  theme  of  this  lecture.  ^^ For 
the  safe-guidance  of  man,  a  revelation  from  God  is  needed  F 
By  revelation,  I  would  be  understood  to  mean,  knowledge 
beyond  the  reach  of  unaided  reason  ;  knowledge  supernaturally 
conveyed,  hy  direct  inspiration  from  God:  such  as  the  great 
body  of  Christians  understand  the  Apostle  to  mean,  when 
he  tells  us,  ^'  all  Scripture  is  given  hy  inspiration  of  GodP 
and  again,  ^''holy  men  of  old  spake  as  they  were  moved  hy 
the  Holy  GhostJ' 

There  is,  indeed,  a  modern  spurious  philosophy,  a 
canting  imitation  of  German  mysticism,  which  is  mag- 
niloquent, and  obscure,  dealing  largely  in  high-sounding 
words  utterly  misapplied. 

The  advocates  of  this  pseudo-philosophy  descant  much 
on  spirit  and  essence,  development  and  progress.  With 
them,  science  is  a  revelation ;  reason  is  an  inspiration ; 
analogy  is  a  symbolization,  the  seed  is  a  prophecy  of  the 
future  plant.  With  them,  every  truth  is  sacred,  and  all 
knowledge  is  divine !  Writers,  and  declaimers  of  this 
stamp,  strike  the  unreflecting  as  original  and  profound, 


82  NECESSITY   FOR  REVELATIOlSr. 

simply  because  they  deal  in  unintelligible  mysticisms, 
perverting  terms,  and  confounding  all  language. 

In  one  sense  it  may  he  said,  that  all  truth  is  sacred:  but 
certainly  reason  is  not  inspiration  ;  any  more  than  gazing 
on  the  heavens  with  the  naked  eye,  is  the  same  as  sur- 
veying the  vast  expanse  through  a  skilfully  constructed 
telescope  I 

Natural  science  is  the  proper  field  of  action  for  human 
reason,  in  which  to  try  her  own  inherent  power. 

Eevelation  is  another,  and  altogether  a  different  field, 
into  which  the  human  mind  is  led  only  by  inspiration^  i.  e. 
by  a  supernatural  influence  direct  from  God ;  wholly  dis- 
tinct from  mere  reason,  and  above  it. 

To  use  these  terms  indiscriminately,  or  to  substitute 
the  one  for  the  other,  is  to  confound  things  entirely 
difierent  and  distinct.  It  is,  in  fact,  to  render  language 
useless,  or  rather,  to  make  it  the  instrument  for  blinding 
and  misleading. 

Revelation^  then^  super  naturally  ifnparted  by  inspiration 
from  Ood,  is  necessary  to  man  I    It  is  so,  because, 

1st.  The  religious  instinct  is  innate  in  man.  It  is  a  feel- 
ing ingrained,  apparently,  in  the  very  nature  of  man, 
that  he  is  a  being,  not  only  frail,  and  dependent  on  a 
higher  power,  but  also  responsible  to  that  power.  Among 
men  of  every  nation  and  tribe  under  heaven,  in  every 
country,  and  in  every  climate,  is  found  the  evidence  of 
this  religious  instinct. 

It  is  so  now,  and  it  has  been  so,  in  all  ages.  Every 
tribe  of  men,  no  matter  how  rude,  has  been  found  to  have 
its  own  deities,  its  ceremonies  of  worship,  its  dogmas  of 
belief;  its  hopes  and  its  fears,  founded  upon  those  dog- 
mas.    The  Jew  and  the  Gentile,  the  Asiatic,  the  Euro- 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  88 

pean,  and  the  American  savage,  the  Islamite,  the  Brah- 
mins of  Hindostan,  the  Buddhist  of  Ceylon,  the  followers 
of  Confucius  in  the  celestial  empire,  and  the  dark-skinned 
trembler  before  the  gree-gree  in  the  burning  wilds  of 
Africa,  all  corroborate  this  statement.  There  is  not  one 
single  well-authenticated  case  in  exception  I 

Some  few  savage  tribes  have  been  spoken  of  by  trav- 
ellers, as  so  debased  that  they  gave  no  indication  of  any 
ideas  of  a  superior  power,  or  of  personal  responsibility. 
But,  a  better  acquaintance  with  such  savages,  and  with 
their  language,  has  usually  shown,  they  were  not  entirely 
destitute  of  religious  sensibility  ;  although  their  notions 
on  these  points  may  have  been  very  obscure. 

It  may,  then,  be  safely  asserted,  that  a  recognition  of 
a  higher  power,  and  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  that 
power,  are  characteristic  of  man,  wherever  found.  The 
religious  instinct  seems  to  appertain  to  humanity  as 
such. 

Now,  for  the  gratification  of  all  other  instinctive  pro- 
pensities, suitable  means  are  bountifully  provided  by  the 
Creator.  He  has  given  us  the  air  to  breathe,  food  to  eat, 
water  to  drink,  the  day  for  labor,  and  the  night  for  re- 
pose,— the  social  feelings  and  the  domestic  relations, — 
together  with  all  the  varied  objects  around  us,  to  excite 
and  to  gratify  man's  thirst  for  knowledge !  Surely,  then, 
this  instinctive  hnging  for  an  acquaintance  with  our  duties^ 
our  future  prospects,  and  the  means  of  solid  happiness, 
was  not  given  to  us  in  vain ! 

As  truly  as  the  structure  of  the  eye  shows  the  need  of 
light  in  which  to  use  it,  and  warrants  the  belief  that  light 
will  be  given  for  that  purpose  ;  so  this  moral  structure  of 
man,  this  internal  organization,  shows  the  need  of  su- 


9$  '     NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION. 

pernatural  light,  for  its  appropriate  actions,  and  war- 
rants the  hope  that  such  spiritual  light  will  not  be  with- 
held. 

Again,  2d.  The  importance  of  the  interests  involved^  shoivs 
the  need  of  Bevelation.  For  the  sustenance,  the  safety,  and 
the  comfort  of  man,  in  this  world,  ample  means  are  pro- 
vided. With  a  mind  capable  of  observing,  comparing,  rea- 
soning, and  planning,  and  with  a  body  admirably  adapted 
to  serve  as  the  instrument  for  effecting  his  purposes,  and 
carrying  out  his  plans,  man  walks  the  lord  of  this  earth  f 
The  soil  he  treads,  yields,  in  return  for  his  labor,  a 
copious  harvest  of  varied  products  for  his  sustenance; 
while  the  fowls  of  the  air,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
deep,  no  less  than  the  beasts  of  the  field,  minister  to  his 
luxury.  Home,  with  its  comforts  and  its  heart-felt  de- 
lights,— society,  with  its  conveniences  and  all  its  refining 
influences,  contribute  largely  to  the  happiness  of  man, 
and  show  the  providential  arrangements  of  the  mighty 
Creator,  for  his  well- being. 

Well  may  life  be  valued,  and  the  light  of  the  sun 
prized !  But  life  is  short,  and  if,  as  there  is  cogent  rea- 
son for  believing,  we  are  immortal,  then,  for  us,  the  one 
grand  inquiry  is,  and  ever  must  be,  how  can  we  render 
that  future  life  a  happy  one  ? 

In  comparison  with  this,  all  that  relates  merely  to  the 
interests  of  this  our  brief  sojourn  on  earth,  sinks  into  in- 
significance. 

If  you  were  about  to  remove  to  a  far  distant  country, 
a  foreign  land,  there  to  settle  for  life,  you  would  spare 
no  pains  to  obtain  correct  information  as  to  the  country, 
its  productions,  its  climate, — the  character  of  its  inhabi- 
tants, the  peculiarities  of  their  society,  their  laws,  their 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  85 

customs, — and  all  that  could  enable  you  to  decide  as  to 
the  requisites  for  there  making  yourself  respectable,  com- 
fortable, and  at  home ;  you  would  not  trust  to  your  own 
surmises,  nor  to  the  mere  assertions  of  rash  pretenders ; 
you  would  require  authentic  information  from  competent 
sources. 

So,  also,  our  immortal  nature  proclaims  the  necessity 
for  information,  such  as  no  child  of  earth,  however  gifted, 
can  impart,  respecting  the  unseen  world  that  awaits  us, 
and  the  means  by  which  we  may  be  fitted  to  enter  that 
world,  with  a  fair  prospect  of  safety,  of  honor,  of  happi- 
ness when  there !  This  needed  instritction,  a  revelation 
from  God  can  alone  impart. 

Again,  3d.  The  limited  extent  of  our  powers  demands  it ! 
For  all  that  respects  this  life  alone,  and  its  interests,  we 
are  abundantly  qualified  to  judge  and  to  act.  We  have 
here  to  do  with  objects  that  are  palpable  to  the  senses, 
with  agents,  whose  nature  is  known  to  us,  and  on  whose 
movements  we  can  calculate. 

The  results  of  scientific  research,  in  so  many  depart- 
ments of  nature,  the  regularity  of  the  seasons,  and  the 
stability  of  what  are  called  the  laws  of  nature,  all  combine 
to  enable  us  to  lay  our  plans,  and  prosecute  them  with 
vigor,  almost  certain,  that,  by  a  prudent  foresight  against 
possible  contingencies,  success  will  crown  our  efforts  to 
secure  comfort,  respectability,  and  usefulness  in  life. 
Every  man  knows  that  by  industry,  skill  and  upright- 
ness in  his  business,  combined  with  discretion  in  his 
conduct,  and  prudence  in  the  management  of  his  proper- 
ty or  his  gains,  all  that  a  reasonable  ambition  can  de- 
sire in  his  peculiar  station,  may  be  his.  The  agricultur- 
ist, the  mechanic,  the  merchant  and  the  scholar,  all  busy 


86  NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION. 

themselves  in  matters  with  which  they  are  conversant, 
and  to  understand  and  to  manage  which,  their  own  in- 
herent powers  are  sufficient.  But,  in  regard  to  the  high- 
er interests  of  the  hfe  to  come,  we  have  no  such  natural 
means  of  judging !  Our  condition  and  our  destiny  after 
death,  we  possess  no  faculty,  no  power,  no  means  what- 
ever of  ascertaining.  That  can  be  determined  only  by 
the  unseen  Author  of  our  being.  The  great  fact  of  the 
existence  of  that  august  Being,  we  can  establish  with  suffi- 
cient clearness  and  certainty,  by  the  operation  of  our 
reason.  Some  of  his  attributes,  also,  we  can  make  out, — 
such  as  his  greatness,  his  omniscience^  and  his  Almighty 
power.  For  his  justice^  also,  we  discern  proof,  ample  and 
conclusive.  But  what  may  be  the  precise  nature  of  the 
relation  we  sustain  to  him,  what  may  be  the  service  he 
requires  from  us,  what  the  duties  he  requires  to  be  by  us 
exercised,  one  towards  another,  and  what  may  be  the 
hearing  of  our  conduct  in  this  life,  upon  our  destiny  her eafte)', 
we  cannot,  by  unaided  reason,  determine.  All  this  lies 
utterly  beyond  the  reach  of  our  noblest  powers ! 

Equally  inscrutable  to  us  is  the  question.  Can  this  sense 
of  guilt,  loading  our  hearts,  be  relieved?  Is  God  merciful  ? 
Can  He  pardon  the  guilty  ?  and,  if  so,  how  ?  by  what 
means?  In  what  way,  and  on  what  conditions,  is  that 
pardon  to  be  had?  No  mere  human  intellect  is  suffi- 
ciently acute,  active,  or  powerful  to  grasp  effectually 
these  points,  and  to  answer  satisfactorily  these  deeply 
interesting  inquiries.  That  answer  can  be  yielded  only  by 
inspiration  from  God/ 

It  is  not  enough  here  to  fall  back  upon  the  goodness  of 
God,  and  say,  "  I'm  not  afraid  to  trust  my  Maker.  He 
who  has  provided  for  us  here  a  world  so  bright,  and  so 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  87 

rich  in  materials  for  enjoyment,  can  make  all  needed  ar- 
rangements to  render  us  happy  hereafter.  If  I  do  my 
duty  here,  I  have  no  fears  for  hereafter,  so  long  as  God 
is  good,  and  is  almighty !"  Agreed,  I  say ;  but  this  brings 
us  no  nearer  to  the  point  than  before ! 

God  can  render  us  happy  hereafter,  no  less  than  here ; 
but  the  question  is,  will  He  ?  and  in  what  way  ?  on  what 
terms  ?  What,  if  it  should  turn  out  to  be  true,  that  the 
formation  in  us,  and  by  us,  of  a  certain  moral  condition,  or 
charade?',  is  absolutely  indispensable  to  our  future  happi- 
ness, just  as  the  bud  must  precede  the  blossom,  as  sowing 
the  seed  must  precede  gathering  in  the  harvest,  or  as  the 
cause  must  precede  the  effect  ?  If  such  is,  in  truth,  the 
law  of  spiritual  being,  and  spiritual  progress,  God  will 
not,  and  he  cannot,  violate  this  law  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  accommodating  us !  The  interests  we  have  at  stake 
are  too  vast  to  be  hazarded  on  a  rash  assumption.  We 
here  want  certainty,  not  conjecture!  That  certainty,  rev- 
elation, and  revelation  alone  can  yield! 

If  we  do  our  duty  here,  we  may  dismiss  all  fear  for 
hereafter,  you  say !  So  say  I,  too  !  But  still  the  ques- 
tion recurs,  what  is  our  dutyf  It  is,  at  least,  possible, 
that  duty  here  may  include  something  more  than  probity 
in  our  dealings,  man  with  man,  and  self-control  in  our 
pleasures !  But  if  so,  then,  one  who  has  been  strictly 
honest,  amiable,  honored  and  useful  among  his  fellow- 
men,  may  yet  have  failed  in  some  of  his  essential  duties, 
and  thus  he  may  fail  to  meet  with  perfect  happiness  here- 
after! He  may  even  find  bitter  disappointment,  and 
heavy  sorrow  awaiting  him!  Who  shall  say?  Obvi- 
ously, a  revelation  from  God,  and  that  alone,  can  settle 
these  fundamental  points. 


88  NECESSITY   FOR   REVELATION. 

But,  further,  4th.  Not  only  are  our  powers  limited, 
but  they  are  enfeebled  by  our  moral  obliquity^  and  \h.Q  judg- 
ment is  perverted  by  inclination. 

Account  for  it  or  not,  as  we  may,  it  is  a  fact  plain  and 
undeniable,  that  the  moral  condition  of  a  man  aifects  his 
intellectual  powers,  and  his  judgment,  at  least,  in  regard 
to  all  questions  of  right  and  duty. 

The  conviction  that  such  is  the  fact,  is  indicated  in 
many  ways,  on  every  hand.  It  is  shown  in  the  demand 
for  a  blameless  life  in  the  teachers  of  religion.  It  is 
shown  on  trials  in  your  courts  of  justice,  by  the  rejection 
as  incompetent  jurors  and  improper  judges,  of  all  persons 
whose  interests  or  affections  are  supposed  to  be  involved 
in  the  issue  of  such  trial.  It  is  shown  in  the  abatement 
with  which  the  testimony  of  interested  witnesses,  how- 
ever generally  upright,  is  always  received;  and  in  the 
undeniable  power  of  prejudice  to  bias  the  judgment. 

If  you  would  bring  to  settlement  a  disputed  claim,  if 
you  would  terminate  a  misunderstanding  or  a  quarrel, 
you  seek  as  arbitrator  a  man  of  admitted  probity,  and 
one  who  has  no  interest  whatever  involved  in  the  affair. 
From  impartial  probity  alone  do  you  anticipate  a  clear  dis- 
cernment of  the  true  merits  of  the  case,  and  a  just  de- 
cision. 

But  in  the  case  of  our  duties  and  our  responsibilities 
to  our  Maker,  we  are  deeply  interested ;  an  unprejudiced 
judgment  is  almost  impossible  to  us.  Who  is  not  aware 
how  frequently  his  judgment  and  his  inclinations  clash? 
That  which  is  easy  to  us,  or  profitable,  or  pleasant,  we 
readily  persuade  ourselves  must  be  innocent.  That  to 
which  inclination  strongly  prompts,  we  are  with  difficulty 
brought  to  recognize  as  evil.     Nay,  even  where  the  judg- 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  89 

merit  is  correct  and  clear,  an  inclination  to  the  contrary 
will  too  generally  control  the  conduct ;  and  this  ill  con- 
duct will,  ere  long,  operate  on  the  whole  man,  clouding 
his  judgment,  and  impairing  his  perceptions,  as  well  as 
debasing  the  character ! 

This  reflex  influence  of  wrong-doing  is  forcibly  ex- 
pressed in  that  oft-quoted  passage : — 

"Vice  is  a  monster  of  so  hideous  mien, 
As,  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen ; 
Yet,  seen  too  oft— familiar  with  her  face, 
We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace !" 

This  power  of  evil  habits  to  pervert  the  judgment,  is 
noted  in  the  Bible,  where  it  is  said  that  the  wicked  "  call 
good^  evil ;  and  evil^  good  /" 

And  this  conflict  between  conviction  of  right,  and  in- 
clination to  wrong,  is  expressed  in  that  well-known  line 
of  the  Koman  poet,  "  Video  meliora,  prohoque^  sed  deteriora 
sequoT  /" 

"  I  see  the  good,  and  I  approve, 
But  yet — the  worse  pursue  !" 

The  same  is  intimated  in  a  very  striking  passage  in 
Paul's  letter  to  the  Komans,  (Eom.  vii.  19,)  "  The  good 
that  I  would,  I  do  not ;  but  the  evil  which  I  would  not,  that 

I  dor 

These  inward  conflicts  in  men's  bosoms,  and  this  fre- 
quent contrariety  between  conduct  and  conviction,  led 
certain  distinguished  philosophers  of  old  to  maintain, 
that  every  man  has  within  him  two  opposing  demons,  or 
spirits,  urging  him  in  different  directions :  the  one  good, 
the  other  evil.  If,  now,  in  the  wisest  and  the  purest  of 
the  heathen  sages,  this  innate  tendency  to  evil,  was 


90  NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION. 

found,  not  only  perverting  the  conduct,  but  biassing  and 
blinding  the  judgment,  as  to  what  is  right,  and  what 
wrong,  if  even  in  one  possessed  of  a  clear  and  infallible 
rule  of  duty  before  him,  this  adverse  influence  was  still 
felt,  what  must  be  the  uncertainty  of  judgment  on  all 
these  high  points,  in  those  left  without  any  higher  guid- 
ance than  their  own  reason,  ever  faltering  and  stagger- 
ing beneath  the  influence  of  selfish  passions,  and  corrupt 
tendencies ! 

This  powerful  and  ever  active  sympathy  between  a 
defective  wavering  judgment,  and  busy  evil  tendencies, 
proclaims,  as  with  trumpet-tongue,  in  every  nation,  and 
every  tribe,  the  necessity  for  a  revelation  from  heaven^  to 
make  known  to  us  ilie  path  of  rights  of  safety  ^  and  of  peace/ 
Like  the  altar  "  To  Hie  unknown  Oody''  at  Athens,  it  is  a 
memento  of  ignorance  and  of  the  urgent  need  of  a  heavenly 
teaching  I 

Again,  5th.  The  systems  of  religion  embraced  among  the 
most  enlightened  nations  of  antiquity ^  serve  hut  to  show  yet 
more  clearly ^  the  need  of  a  revelation  I  If  in  anything  cor- 
rect notions  prevail  among  men,  we  might  surely  expect 
to  meet  with  them  in  the  religious  belief,  and  in  the  sys- 
tem of  worship  maintained;  for  correctness  there,  is 
most  desirable,  and  most  important. 

But,  in  every  nation,  and  from  the  remotest  times,  the 
religious  systems  of  men  without  the  Bible,  have  been 
defective  and  absurd. 

Of  the  mythology  of  Greece  and  Eome,  I  need  not 
now  speak :  it  was  a  tissue  of  grandeur  and  littleness ; 
of  imposing  splendor,  and  the  most  disgusting  licentious- 
ness. The  little  of  good  which  it  did  present,  was  de- 
rived, originally,  from  Egypt. 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  91 

As  to  what  the  doctrines  of  Bramah  can  do  for  man- 
kind, let  India  testify,  where  society  is  divided  into 
castes,  hopelessly  separated  from  each  other ;  where  a 
cruel  superstition  degrades  the  mass  of  the  people; 
where  veracity  is  almost  unknown,  and  where  impurity, 
open  and  utterly  shameless,  taints  even  their  highest 
ceremonies  of  religious  worship. 

In  regard  to  the  Yedas,  or  sacred  books  of  the  Hin- 
doos, it  is  asserted  by  M.  Pauthier,  (Livres  Sacrees  de 
I'Orient,  p.  313,)  that,  "  The  deities  invoked  appear,  on 
a  hasty  examination  of  the  Yedas,  to  be  as  varied  as  are 
the  authors  of  the  prayers  addressed  to  them.  But,  ac- 
cording to  the  most  ancient  annotations  made  on  the 
Indian  Scriptures,  these  names,  so  numerous,  of  persons 
and  of  things,  are  all  to  be  resolved  into  different  titles 
of  three  divinities^  and  finally,  of  one  God  alone. 

The  ISTig-ham-ti,  or  Glossary  of  the  Yedas,  terminates 
with  three  lists  of  the  names  of  gods ;  the  first  containing 
all  those  which  appear  to  be  synonyms  of  fire;  the 
second,  the  synonyms  of  air ;  and  the  third,  those  of 
the  sun.  In  the  last  part  of  the  Ni-rouk-ta,  which  relates 
exclusively  to  the  divinities,  it  is  twice  asserted  there  are 
only  three  gods  ;  and  that  these  three  gods  denote  only 
one  deity^  is  established  by  numerous  passages  in  the 
Yeda  itself 

Thus  it  is  distinctly  stated,  "  The  divinities  are  three 
only,  whose  habitations  are  the  earth,  the  intermediate 
region,  and  the  heavens  ;  i.  e.  fire,  air,  and  the  sun." 

These  divinities  are  all  specified  by  various  mysterious 
names,  and  the  Lord  of  creation,  is  their  divinity  collec- 
tively. 

Again.     "  There  is  but  one  only  Divinity,  the  great 


92  NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION. 

Soul^  {Mahdn  Atmah.)  It  is  named  tlie  Sun  ;  for  the  Sun 
is  the  soul  of  all  other  beings,  and  this  is  declared  by  the 
wise  man,  (le  sage.)  The  Sun  is  the  soul  of  whatever  moves  ; 
and  of  whatever  moves  not.''*  The  other  divinities  are  por- 
tions, or  fractions  of  his  person.  (See  Notice  sur  les  Ye- 
das,  Pauthier,  pp.  313  and  314.) 

Of  Ghina^  we  know  too  little,  and  the  boasted  documents 
of  its  extreme  antiquity  are  too  feebly  corroborated  by 
any  evidence  save  what  they  bear  upon  the  face  of 
them,  for  us  to  institute  a  full  comparison.  It  is  true, 
indeed,  that  M.  Pauthier,  the  learned  historian  of  China, 
the  translator  and  commentator  on  Chinese  philosophy, 
literature  and  religion,  asserts,  in  his  "Introduction  to 
the  Sacred  "Writings  of  the  East :"  "  The  Chinese  civiliza- 
tion is,  without  doubt,  ike  most  ancient  civilization  of 
the  existing  world.  It  is  carried  back  authentically,  {i.  e. 
by  the  testimony  of  Chinese  historians,)  as  far  as  two 
thousand,  six  hundred  years  before  our  era ;  i.  e.  to  B.  c. 
2600." 

"  The  documents  collected  together  in  the  work  called 
Chou-King^  i.  e.  tlie  Book^  by  way  of  eminence,  (like  as  our 
sacred  Scriptures  are  called  Oie  Bible.,  or  The  Book,)  are 
the  most  ancient  documents  of  the  history  of  the  world. 
The  ideas  contained  in  the  Chou-King,  respecting  the 
Deity,  the  beneficent  influence  which  he  constantly  ex- 
erts upon  the  affairs  of  the  world,  are  very  pure,  and 
worthy,  in  all  respects,  of  the  soundest  philosophy."  (See 
Livres  Sacr^es  de  I'Orient,  par  M.  Pauthier,  Introduc- 
tion, p.  X.  Paris,  1842.) 

Such  are  the  bold  assertions  of  this  enthusiastic  advo- 
cate of  the  vast  antiquity  claimed  for  China.  And  yet, 
M.  Pauthier  himself  admits  that  this  work,  Chou-King,  is 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  93 

but  a  compilation,  arranged  by  Confucius,  so  late  as  tbe 
middle  of  tbe  sixth  century  before  Christ;  although 
Mon.  Pauthier  contends  that  this  great  Chinese  philoso- 
pher had  so  profound  a  respect  for  antiquity,  that  he 
altered  not  at  all  the  accounts  he  collected  from  ancient 
documents,  and  put  in  order,  in  that  publication.  "  Be- 
sides," (adds  Mon.  P.,)  "  to  Sinologues,  (^.  e.  to  Chinese 
scholars,  those  skilled  in  the  Chinese  tongue,)  the  style 
of  these  writings,  which  differs  as  much  from  the  style 
of  modern  Chinese  writings,  as  the  style  of  the  twelve 
tables  differs  from  the  style  of  Cicero,  is  sufficient  proof 
of  their  antiquity." 

On  the  showing  of  this  distinguished  Orientalist  him- 
self, then,  it  is  plain,  that  the  authenticity  of  these 
Chinese  sacred  documents,  is  more  than  questionable: 
their  high  antiquity  is  conjectural  at  best. 

Pauthier  is  doubtless  an  able  Sinologue  himself,  but 
he  cannot  be  supposed  able  to  appreciate  the  niceties  of 
the  ancient  Chinese,  and  of  the  more  modern,  as  might  a 
profoundly  learned  native  Chinese  scholar.  A  Chinese, 
or  a  Hindoo  sage,  might  master  the  English  language 
sufficiently  to  read  it  fluently  and  accurately,  and  even 
to  appreciate  its  qualities  and  to  speak  it  too  :  but  such 
foreign  critic  would  obviously  be  quite  incompetent  to 
decide  questions  involving  such  niceties  as  must  be  con- 
sidered in  pronouncing  on  the  spuriousness  or  genuine- 
ness of  the  work  put  forth  by  Chatteron.  An  accom- 
plished native  writer  might,  without  great  difficulty,  im- 
pose on  a  foreign  critic,  as  of  extreme  antiquity,  a  docu- 
ment really  modern,  but  composed  for  the  purpose  of  its 
being  passed  off,  for  one  of  great  antiquity. 

Besides  all  this,  the  documents  themselves,  of  which 


94  NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION. 

translations  are  now  extant,  in  more  than  one  of  the  lan- 
guages of  modern  Europe,  (the  French  translation  of  a  por- 
tion of  it,  by  M.  Pauthier  himself,  is  now  before  me,)  fur- 
nish evidence,  that  the  system  of  Confucius,  and  the  doc- 
trines taught  in  this  renowned  book,  the  Chou-King,  were 
political^  rather  than  religious  ;  they  respected  man  rather 
as  a  community^  consisting  of  governors  and  governed,  than 
as  an  individual.  The  admissions  of  Pauthier  himself 
show  this.  Thus,  (and  I  here  quote  Mon.  Pauthier's  own 
words,)  "  In  the  Chou-King,  we  shall  especially  remark 
the  intervention  of  heaven,  or  of  the  Supreme  Intelligence, 
(de  la  Kaison Supreme,)  in  the  relations  of  princes  with 
the  people  (avec  les  populations,)  or  of  governments  with 
the  governed ;  and  this  intervention  is  always  in  favor 
of  the  latter,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  people,  &c.  &c."* 

But,  whatever  may  have  been,  or  may  now  be,  the 
character  of  the  religious  philosophy  of  the  Chinese,  as 
held  by  their  learned  dignitaries,  certain  it  is  that  the 
institutions  of  Confucius  (admirable  though  they  were 
for  many  sound  moral  precepts)  are  not  inconsistent  with 
idolatry,  and  with  the  extensive  prevalence  of  infanticide 
among  the  people  at  large. 

It  is  well  known,  also,  that  the  Assyrians  and  Chal- 

*  The  Confucian  system  of  religion,  if  religion  it  can  be  called,  for  it 
has  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  theology,  is  merely  a  scheme  of  ethics 
and  politics,  from  which  things  spiritual  and  divine,  are,  generally  speak- 
ing, excluded.  In  the  works  of  Confucius,  there  are  some  allusions  to 
Heaven,  as  the  presiding  power  of  nature,  and  to  Fate,  as  the  determiner 
of  all  things  :  but  he  does  not  appear  to  attribute  originality  to  the  one, 
or  rationality  to  the  other.  "  Life  and  death  are  decreed  by  Fate ;  riches 
and  poverty  rest  with  Heaven." 

See  "  China,  Political,  Commercial  and  Social,"  by  R.  M.  Martin,  Esq. 
London,  1847 :  vol.  i.  p.  67. 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  95 

deans  were  idolaters,  and  were  greatly  addicted  to  as- 
trology— as  the  Persians  still  are  to  this  day. 

The  ancient  Persians  acknowledged  two  ruling  prin- 
ciples— the  one  good,  Oromanzes ;  the  other  evil,  Ari- 
manes.  They  offered  sacrifices  to  both  :  to  the  former, 
sacrifices  of  thanksgiving  ;  to  the  latter,  sacrifices  depre- 
catory— in  order  to  avert  calamities.  Such,  and  so  pit- 
iable were  the  religious  systems  of  the  most  remarkable, 
and  the  most  highly  civilized  among  the  nations  of  an- 
tiquity. 

In  China  and  in  India,  both,  we  find  still  existing  the 
remains  of  their  ancient  dogmas  treasured  up  in  their 
sacred  books. 

Ample  time  has  been  afforded  to  develop  the  full  in- 
fluence of  their  religious  tenets  on  the  manners  and  the 
practices  of  the  people  at  large ;  for  both  these  ancient 
nations,  and  more  especially  the  Chinese,  have,  through 
a  long  succession  of  ages,  preserved  themselves  isolated 
from  all  other  nations,  and  consequently  untouched  by 
the  customs  and  the  sentiments  of  foreigners.  The  result 
is  such,  as  modern  observation  has  found  them.  They 
are  a  people  refined  in  manners,  and  luxurious  in  their 
habits,  idolatrous,  and  deeply  superstitious. 

But,  we  are  now  frequently  and  very  confidently  told, 
that  in  Egypt,  the  cradle  of  wisdom,  and  the  birth-place 
of  the  arts,  there  was  found  a  system  of  religious  belief, 
together  with  a  code  of  morals,  wise,  healthful,  worthy 
of  man,  and  the  actual  prototype  of  Judaism,  and,  conse- 
quently, of  Christianity  too.  Moses  is  said  to  have  been 
''  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians ;"  and  the  doc- 
trines he  taught,  and  the  institutions  he  established,  show 
it  to  be  true.     For,  all  that  is  excellent  and  distinctive  in 


96  NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION. 

the  Jewish  law,  and  the  Jewish  ceremonial  rites,  was  (as 
the  enthusiastic  admirers  of  Egyptian  archaeology  tell  us) 
plainly  borrowed  from  Egypt  I 

In  this  bold  statement  there  is  a  strange  compound  of 
truth  and  falsehood. 

A  series  of  stupendous  monuments  is  really  found  in 
Egypt,  of  extreme  antiquity  ;  and  they  present  historical 
paintings,  and  hieroglyphic  records,  running  back,  in 
regular  sequence,  to  a  period  long  anterior  to  the  time 
of  Christ ;  nay,  even  anterior  to  Moses ;  and  possibly 
older  also  than  the  age  of  Joseph  ; — we  might  almost  say, 
older  than  the  time  of  Abraham  himself  I  On  these 
monuments  the  names  and  the  attributes  of  their  gods  are 
recorded — the  ceremonies  of  their  worship  are  described 
— and  the  tenets  of  their  creed  are  set  forth.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  soul,  as  separate  and  distinct  from  the  body 
— as  surviving  the  life  on  earth — is  plainly  recognized. 
Many  admirable  precepts  of  morality  are  set  forth  in  their 
ritual  of  the  dead ;  in  the  trial  to  which  they  represent 
every  man  as  subjected  after  death,  before  the  forty-two 
judges  of  the  dead,  in  the  region  of  Amenti.  The  souls 
of  men  they  represent  as  subject  to  a  metempsychosis — 
a  passage  from  one  animal  into  another — till  their  stains 
are  gradually  purified,  when  the  souls  are  absorbed  in 
the  essence  of  their  greatest  of  gods,  Amoun.  (Wilkin- 
son's Man.  and  Cus.  2d  Series,  v.  2,  p.  112.)  Egypt  was, 
undoubtedly,  peopled  by  one  of  the  earliest  colonies  from 
among  the  children  of  Noah.  These  colonists  brought 
with  them,  it  is  probable,  a  knowledge  of  the  one  God, 
and  of  the  moral  virtues  he  requires  and  approves. 

The  ancient  Egyptian  ritual  gives  proof  of  the  patri- 
archal oiigin  of  the  Egyptian  creed ;  but  their  whole  re- 


NECESSITY  FOR  EEVELATION.  97 

ligious  system  gives  proof  also  of  the  corrupting  influ- 
ence of  priestly  cunning.  The  priesthood  in  Egypt  was 
always  a  large  and  a  powerful  class.  They  were  originally 
the  rulers  of  the  whole  land,  as  the  historic  tables  of  the 
dynasties  of  their  gods  seem  to  intimate.  The  military 
order  afterwards  seized  on  supreme  power,*  about  B.C. 
2200,  and  furnished  the  kings.  But  even  their  kings, 
the  most  illustrious  and  the  most  powerful,  were  compel- 
led to  be  introduced  into  the  ranks,  and  initiated  into  the 
mysteries  of  the  priesthood,  before  they  could  enjoy  the 
^clat  of  a  public  and  solemn  coronation,  as  monarchs  of 
Egypt.     (See  Wilkinson.) 

The  great  truths  of  religion,  so  far  as  they  were  really 
known,  were  shrouded  in  mysteries,  and  were  shadowed 
forth  to  the  people  only  in  symbols.  The  knowledge  of 
the  real  meaning  of  those  symbols — of  the  spirit  of  their 
religion,  was  confined  to  the  initiated. 

Among  the  Egyptians,  the  priesthood  was  a  secret  or- 
der, and  knowledge  the  most  sacred  and  important,  was 
a  kind  of  freemasonry,  communicated  only  by  symbols, 
and  shrouded  in  the  deepest  mystery. 

Lucian  asserts :  "  The  Egyptians  were  reputed  the  first 
who  had  a  conception  of  the  gods,  an  acquaintance  with 
religious  matters,  and  a  knowledge  of  sacred  names." 

Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson  asserts  that,  "  superstitiously  at- 
tached to  their  sacred  institutions,  and  professing  a  reli- 
gion which  admitted  much  outward  show,  the  Egyptians 
clothed  their  ceremonies  with  all  the  grandeur  of  solemn 
pomp :    and  the  celebration  of  their  religious  rites  was 

*  This  is  the  view  taken  by  Champollion,  and  it  seems  to  me  but 
reasonable,  althoug;h  the  learned  Heeren  appears  inclined  to  doubt  its 
accuracy.    See  his  Egypt,  pp.  497,  498. 

5 


98  NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION. 

remarkable  for  all  that  human  ingenuity  could  devise,  to 
render  them  splendid  and  imposing."  (Manners,  &c.  An- 
cient Egypt,  2d  series,  vol.  i.  p.  141.) 

It  may  be  averred  that  even  Papal  Kome,  with  all  her 
gorgeous  splendor  of  ceremonial,  falls  immeasurably  short 
of  the  majestic  pageantry  of  ancient  Egyptian  ceremo- 
nies. (See  plates  to  Wilkinson's  Manners  and  Customs, 
&c.,  2d  series,  vol.  ii.)* 

The  ancient  Egyptians  are  said  by  the  learned  to  have 
held  the  doctrine  of  one  only  Supreme  Being,  the  source 
of  all,  and  independent  of  all  I 

It  is  not  improbable  that  they  were  acquainted  with 
this  grand  truth,  handed  down  to  them  by  tradition  from 
the  patriarchs  who  survived  the  deluge.  That  there  was 
some  remnant  of  truth  lying  at  the  basis  of  the  religious 
system  of  Egypt,  as  late  at  least  as  the  time  of  the  patriarch 
Joseph,  is  rendered  more  than  probable,  by  Joseph's  mar- 
riage with  Asenath,  daughter  of  Potiphera,  priest  of  On, 
or  Heliopolis.  (Gen.  xli.  45.)  The  idolatrous  daughter 
of  a  priest  of  a  religion  wholly  idolatrous,  we  cannot 
suppose  would  have  been  chosen  by  the  pious  Joseph, 
to  become  his  wife,  the  mother  of  his  sons,  the  future 
heads  of  tribes  in  Israel. 

But  the  knowledge  of  the  One  God,  if  still  held  in 
Egypt,  must  have  been  regarded  as  one  of  their  most 
sacred  mysteries — it  was  confined  to  the  priesthood  and 

*  See  e.  g.  the  pictorial  representation  of  the  ceremonies  performed  at 
the  coronation  of  a  king,  from  the  sculptures  of  Rameses  III.  at  Medinet 
Haboo,  Thebes.  (Wilkinson,  vol.  iii.  of  2d  series.)  See  also  the  great 
funeral  procession  of  a  royal  scribe,  delineated  at  Thebes,  (vol.  iii.  as 
above.)  See  also  Champollion,  Monumens  de  I'Egypte  et  de  Nubie. 
(Plates,  vol.  i.    Plate  11,  12, 13.  PI.  27,  28,  29.) 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  99 

the  initiated,  and  carefully  veiled  in  mysterious  symbols, 
from  the  vulgar. 

Certain  it  is,  at  least,  that  whatever  may  have  been  the 
knowledge  on  this  subject,  held  by  the  Egyptian  priest- 
hood, the  ancient  Egyptians  did  not,  under  any  foi'm^  sym- 
bol or  hieroglyphic,  represent  the  idea  of  the  unity  of 
God.  (Wilk.  Man.  and  Customs  of  Anct.  Egyptians,  2d 
series,  vol.  ii.  pp.  176-178.) 

"  It  appears,"  (says  Wilkinson,)  "  that  the  divinity  him- 
self was  not  represented  in  the  sculptures  of  Egypt,  and 
that  the  figures  of  their  gods  were  but  deified  attributes, 
indicative  of  intellect,  power,  goodness,  might,  and  other 
qualities  in  the  Supreme  Deity."  Over  all  the  acres  of 
hieroglyphic  painting  and  hieroglyphic  writing,  not  one 
solitary  recognition  has  yet  been  found  of  the  one  Su- 
preme God.  No  one  sign,  symbol,  or  character  has  been 
detected  representing  this  grand  idea. 

Like  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Eomans,  the  Egyptians 
divided  their  gods  into  different  classes,  or  grades.  Of 
their  great  gods,  the  Greeks  reckoned  twelve. 

The  great  gods  of  Egypt  were  eight  in  number,  one  of 
whom  generally  formed,  in  conjunction  with  two  of  the 
others,  a  triad,  which  was  worshipped  by  a  particular 
city  or  district,  with  peculiar  veneration.  In  these  Egyp- 
tian triads,  the  third  member  proceeded  from  the  other 
two,  ^.  e.  from  the  first  and  the  second.  Memphis,  Philae, 
Thebes,  and  nearly  every  large  city  or  nome,  had  its  own 
peculiar  triad.*     Throughout  every  part  of  Egypt,  all  the 

*  The  great  triad  worshipped  at  Thebes  was  the  god  Amoun,  the  god- 
dess Maut,  and  their  son  Khonso.  Another  triad  was  Osiris,  Isis,  and 
their  son  Horus,  always  represented  as  very  youthful.  This  was  the  triad 
greatly  revered  at  Philae.    (Wilk.  2d  series,  vol.  i.  p.  185.)    Neph,  (or 


100  NECESSITY   FOR   REVELATION. 

great  gods  were  treated  with  respect.  But  an  immense 
number  of  other  deities  were  set  up  as  objects  of  wor- 
ship, some  in  one  place,  and  some  in  another ;  and  it 
often  occurred  that  certain  rites  were  performed  in  one 
district,  which  were  totally  different  from  those  practised 
in  another.  Among  the  objects  of  adoration  in  Egypt, 
was  the  bull  Apis,  the  cow,  the  crocodile,  the  cat,  the 
dog,  and  even  vegetables,  such  as  leeks,  &c.  Hence  the 
severe  satire  of  the  Koman  poet  Juvenal.     (Sat.  15th.) 

"  Who  knows  not,  Bythinian  Volusius,  what  monsters 
Mad  Egypt  can  worship  1    This  place  adores  a  crocodile, — 
That  fears  an  ibis,  saturated  with  serpents  ; 
A  golden  image  of  a  sacred  Cereopithecus  shines, 
Where  the  magic  chords  resound  from  the  half-Memnon ; 
And  ancient  Thebes  lies  overthrown  with  its  hundred  gates ! 
There,  a  sea-fish,— here  a  river-fish,  there, 
Whole  towns  worship  a  dog,— nobody  Diana. 
It  is  a  sin  to  violate  a  leek,  or  an  onion,  or  to  break  them  with  a  bite," 

In  this,  satire  though  it  is,  there  is  no  exaggeration.* 

Eneph,)  Sat5,  and  Anouk  constituted  the  triad  chiefly  honored  at  Ele- 
phantine and  the  Cataracts. 

*  Two  towns  (as  Plutarch  tells  us)  waged  obstinate  war  one  upon  the 
other,  (see  Plut.  de  Isid.  ^  72 ;  and  Wilk.  1st  ser.  vol.  iii.  p.  59,)  because 
the  people  of  Cynopolis  were  in  the  habit  of  eating  a  fish  esteemed  sacred 
by  the  people  of  Satopolis,  in  the  Thebaid.    So,  also,  at  Denderah  the 
crocodile  was  abhorred,  while  at  Ombos  it  was  worshipped  ;  and  hence,  at 
one  time,  cruel  wars  were  waged  between  these  two  cities.  In  the  second 
volume  of  his  second  series,  on  the  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient 
Egyptians,  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson  tells  us  that  "  many  serious  quarrels  ensued 
between  whole  towns  and  provinces,  owing  to  the  circumstance  of  a  sacred 
animal  having  been  killed,  either  from  accident  or  design,  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  a  neighboring  district,  where  its  worship  was  not  acknowledged." 
This,  also,  has  been  noticed,  by  the  same  keen  Roman  satirist,  Juvenal : 
"  Numina  vicinorum, 
Odit  uterque  locus :  cum  solos  dicit  habendos 
Esse  deos,  quos  ipse  colit." — Juv.  Sat.  xv.  36, 
See  also  Wilkinson,  2d  series,  vol.  ii.  p.  159. 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  101 

Even  so  late  as  the  time  of  tlie  Eoman  dominion  in 
Egypt,  so  deep-rooted  were  these  superstitions  that  a 
Koman  soldier,  who  had  accidentally  killed  a  cat,  was 
put  to  death ;  and  not  even  the  power  of  the  Eomans, 
the  conquerors  of  the  country,  availed  to  save  him.  So 
says  Diodorus,  (i.  §  3.)  See  Wilkinson,  1st  series,  vol.  iii. 
p.  43. 

When  a  dog  died,  every  person  in  the  house  to  which 
he  belonged,  went  into  mourning,  fasted  the  entire  day, 
and  every  article  of  food  that  happened  to  be  in  the 
house,  or  on  the  premises  at  the  time,  was  carefully 
destroyed.  (Wilk.  2d  ser.,  vol.  ii.  p.  140 :  also  1st  ser. 
vol.  iii.  pp.  42,  43.) 

The  Egyptians  had  an  immense  number  of  deities: 
gods  were  made  of  the  senses^  the  virtues,  and  of  every  ab- 
stract idea  which  had  reference  to  the  deity  or  to  man. 
Intellect,  might,  wisdom,  prudence,  fortitude,  &c.,  were  all 
deified !  The  year,  the  month,  the  day,  the  very  hour,  were 
all  placed,  each  under  its  own  peculiar  divinity.  (Wilk. 
2d  ser.,  vol.  i.  p.  172.)  The  sun,  the  moon,  air,  earth,  the 
Nile,  and  the  generative  principle  in  nature,  were  all  deified 
and  worshipped.  Nay  the  dead  were  considered  as 
identified  with  the  gods ;  and  a  modified  worship  was 
rendered  by  every  man  to  his  deceased  ancestors,  repre- 
sented by  their  mummies. 

One  instance,  at  least,  has  been  found,  of  a  Pharaoh 
standing,  while  yet  living,  and  with  his  queen  by  his  side, 
paying  divine  honors  to  the  representative  of  his  own 
body,  embalmed  as  a  mummy, — the  symbol  of  his  own 
future  deification.  (See  Mons.  Ampere,  Eev.  des  Deux 
Mondes,  Nov.  1846,  p.  685.)  Such  were  the  religious 
tenets,  and  the  practices  prevailing  among  the  ancient 


102  NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION. 

Egyptians,  the  result  of  their  boasted  wisdom.  What- 
ever may  have  been  the  excellence  of  the  dogmas  reveal- 
ed to  the  initiated  priesthood,  under  their  symbols, — to 
the  mass,  to  the  whole  nation,  the  teaching  of  Egyptian 
wisdom,  was  that  of  polytheism,  idolatry,  and  an  utterly 
ridiculous  superstition. 

On  the  most  splendid  of  their  temples  and  their  shrines, 
the  gorgeous  pictorial  delineations,  and  the  mysterious 
hieroglyphic  records,  practically  read  "y/yywa*©  Stdf^  To  the 
Unknoivn  Ood.  The  very  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  so 
sadly  perverted  in  all  that  relates  to  the  object  and  the 
forms  of  worship,  is  one  of  the  most  significant  of  all 
proofs,  that  to  guide  man  aright^  a  revelation  from  heaven  is 
indispensable  ! 

Again,  6th.  The  ethical  teaching  of  the  ablest  of  ancient 
philosophers,  was  of  such  a  character^  as  to  demonstrate  the 
need  of  a  divine  revelation. 

On  the  fearful  corruption  of  morals,  generally  preva- 
lent among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  and  among  the  hea- 
then of  our  own  day,  I  shall  not  dwell ;  although  the 
practical  influence  of  the  ethics  inculcated  by  their  teach- 
ers, is  therein  faithfully  reflected.  The  ancient  Egyp- 
tians were  singularly  blameless  in  their  manners,  so  far 
as  the  evidence  presented  on  their  monuments  goes  to 
show,  and  many  admirable  precepts  of  morality  were 
embodied  in  their  ritual  of  the  dead. 

A  similar  concession  may  be  made,  in  regard  to  the 
comparatively  pure  morals  prevailing  in  China. 

The  moral  precepts  which  were  but  imperfectly  set 
forth  among  the  Egyptians,  were  all  embodied  by  Moses, 
in  his  laws,  and  were  therein  placed  in  their  true  light, 
exhibited  in  their  proper  relations,  grounded  on  just 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  ^       103 

considerations,  and  sustained  by  the  only  appropriate 
authority. 

But,  if  we  except  this  dim  glimmering  of  patriarchal 
light  still  lingering  in  Egypt,  and  possibly,  also,  among 
the  mountain  fastnesses  of  western  China,  the  whole  an- 
cient world  was  shrouded  in  the  thickest  gloom  of  moral 
darkness. 

Plato  derived  his  best  ethical  notions  from  Egypt ;  and 
from  Plato,  Cicero,  Seneca,  and  the  other  distinguished 
philosophers  of  Kome,  and  even  of  Greece,  drew  largely 
for  their  opinions  in  morals. 

But,  although  each  of  these  celebrated  men  laid  down 
many  just  principles,  and  wholesome  rules,  still,  there  is 
hardly  any  one  vice  which  has  not  been  vindicated  and 
recommended  by  one  or  more  of  the  illustrious  sages  of 
antiquity ! 

One  recommends  lying,  in  certain  cases  ;  another  jus- 
tifies suicide ;  and  we  know,  that  in  their  own  conduct, 
an  illustration  of  their  moral  code  was  often  presented 
by  contrast,  rather  than  by  conformity.  Upon  the  great 
mass  of  society,  their  reasoning  was  powerUss.  To  the 
multitude,  their  ethical  system  was  unknown;  or  if 
known,  it  was  unintelligible. 

The  great  mass  of  men,  in  all  ages,  are  doomed  to  daily 
toil,  through  their  whole  life.  They  have  neither  leisure, 
nor  ability,  nor  inclination,  for  abstruse  speculation  and 
nice  reasoning. 

The  system  of  ethical  philosophy,  as  taught  by  the 
ancient  sages,  is,  after  all,  but  the  reasoning  of  fallible 
and  imperfect  men.  It  carries  no  authority.  It  will  not 
induce  a  man  to  forego  a  coveted  pleasure,  when  brought 
within  his  reach. 


104  NECESSITY   FOR   REVELATION. 

In  order  to  control  the  passions  of  men,  and  arouse 
conscience  to  vindicate  the  righi^  in  opposition  to  the  de- 
sirable, there  must  be  presented  a  rule  of  duty  not  only 
plain,  explicit,  and  intelligible,  but  also  of  unquestio/i- 
ahle  authority.  Such  rule  revelation  alone  can  furnish. 
The  very  nature,  therefore,  of  the  wisest  teachings  of  the 
wisest  men  of  antiquity,  in  morals,  shows  the  necessity  for 
a  revelation  from  God  himself  / 

Lastly,  7th.  The  general  sentiment  of  mankind  betrays 
the  expectation  of  a  revelation,  and  does,  therefore,  bespeak  its 
necessity.  Go  where  you  may,  among  men,  and  you  find 
some  system  of  religious  belief,  and  religious  practices, 
which,  however  rude,  are  professedly  derived  from 
heaven.  Egypt,  ascribing  her  sacred  rites  to  Isis,  Osiris 
and  Ptah,  to  Amoun,  to  Thoth  and  Khonso,  incarnations 
of  the  supreme  monad ;  China  with  its  heaven-taught 
Confucius ;  India  with  her  Brahmins  and  her  sacred 
books;  Numah,  with  his  institutions  enjoined  upon  him 
in  his  mysterious  conferences  with  the  nymph  Egeria ; 
Mohammed,  with  his  visions  and  his  teacher-angel ;  and 
the  North  American  savage  prophet  with  his  dreams, 
and  his  voices  of  the  Great  Spirit,  all  combine  to  show  a 
deep-seated  conviction  in  the  human  heart,  that,  in  what 
relates  to  man's  duties  and  responsibilities  to  his  Maker, 
a  supernatural  guidance  is  desirable,  is  indeed  necessary, 
and  that  the  attainment  of  such  guidance  is  not  hope- 
less. 

The  best  and  the  wisest  among  the  ancient  sages  felt, 
and  awowed  the  conviction,  that,  for  men,  divine  guid- 
ance is  needed. 

Cicero  expressed  himself  in  a  very  striking  manner. 

Socrates  is  yet  more  explicit ;  he  avows  his  despair 


NECESSITY  FOR  REVELATION.  105 

of  ever  attaining  to  anything  like  certain  knowledge  in  re- 
ligion, or  in  morals,  until  some  divine  teacher  shall  come 
to  instruct  us.  His  words  are,  "  We  must,  of  necessity, 
wait,  till  some  one  from  Him  who  careth  for  us,  shall 
come  and  instruct  us,  how  we  ought  to  behave  towards 
God,  and  towards  man."  (See  Faber's  Difficulties  of  In- 
fidelity.) 

Plato,  who  had  visited  Egypt,  and  had  been  initiated 
into  many  of  its  sacred  mysteries,  still  felt  himself  com- 
pelled to  declare,  "  We  cannot  know,  of  ourselves,  what 
petition  will  be  pleasing  to  God,  or  what  worship  we 
should  pay  to  him  ;  but  it  is  necessary  that  a  lawgiver 
should  be  sent  from  heaven  to  instruct  us."  Such  a 
divinely-commissioned  teacher  Plato  expected,  and  he 
adds :  "  Oh  !  how  greatly  do  I  desire  to  see  that  man, 
and  who  he  is  ! "  Plato  even  affirms,  that  this  lawgiver^ 
or  teacher,  must  he  more  than  man,  in  order  that  he  may 
teach  us  what  man  could  not  hnow  hy  his  own  nature. 

Such  were  the  convictions,  so  deep,  so  clear,  in  the 
minds  of  those  most  competent  of  all  our  race,  in  ancient 
times,  to  judge  in  the  case,  that  supernatural  instruction, 
directly  from  God,  is  needed  for  man,  in  all  that  pertains 
to  religion  and  to  moral  duties.  Thus  we  find  that  the 
polytheistic  belief  and  the  multifarious  rites  of  ancient  na- 
tions— the  various  pretences  to  a  heaven-descended  reli- 
gion— the  claims  of  impostors — and  the  aspirations  of 
distinguished  sages  in  time  past,  all  combine  to  show  the 
necessity  for  a  divine  revelation.  Every  sacrifice  offered 
on  the  face  of  the  earth — every  struggle  of  the  victims 
slain,  proclaimed  the  need  of  revelation.  In  this  point  of 
view,  every  gorgeous  pile  erected  and  used  as  a  temple, 
in  Egypt  or  in  India — every  Grecian  mystery — every 

5# 


106  NECESSITY   FOR  KEYELATION". 

Eoman  shrine,  was  an  altar  mutely  pointing  "  To  the  Un- 
known God  /"  demonstrating  the  need  of  a  revelation. 

The  mariner,  who  has  navigated  in  safety  the  open 
ocean,  and  is  now  approaching  an  unknown  coast,  when 
he  sees  the  rude  breakers  tossing  and  roaring  between 
him  and  the  desired  port,  and  beholds  before  his  eyes  the 
fruits  of  self-confidence  in  others — one  vessel  thumping 
upon  the  rocks — another  stranded  on  the  beach — an- 
other already  beaten  to  pieces  among  the  foaming  break- 
ers— readily  admits  his  need  of  a  pilot,  and  hoists  his 
signal  to  secure  one  to  guide  him  in  safety  through  the 
unknown  channel. 

So  also  the  necessity  for  revelation  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  religion  and  to  moral  duty,  is  betrayed  by 
"  the  instinct  of  religion  characteristic  of  man  everywhere  ; 
hy  the  importance  of  the  interests  involved^  because  we 
are  immortal ;  hy  the  imperfection  of  our  powers^  and 
the  limitation  of  our  capacities ;  hy  the  significant  fact^ 
also,  that  the  free  and  appropriate  exercise  of  these  our  pow- 
ers is  impeded  by  our  evil  passions ^  and  the  judgment  is  im- 
paired by  our  corrupt  tendencies; — while  all  this  is  yet 
further  corrohorated  by  the  defective  nature  and  the  ahsurd 
character  of  the  religions  established  among  even  the  nohlest 
nations  of  antiquity,  the  Egyptians  pre-eminently.  The 
morals  taught  by  the  ivisest  of  merely  human  teachers  have 
been  grievously  defective  ;  and  the  morals  prevailing  in  so- 
ciety, where  unaided  reason  was  the  sole  guide,  have  heen 
yet  vjorse  than  the  precepts — have,  indeed,  been  fearfully 
depraved.  And  lastly,  the  general  sentiment  of  mankind, 
as  expressed  in  the  innumerable  pretensions  to  an  authorita- 
tive religion,  and  the  hope,  avowed  by  some  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished philosophers  of  antiquity,  that  some  divine  teacher 


NECESSITY  FOK  REVELATION.  107 

would  yet  he  commissioned  of  heaven  to  enlighten  mankind — 
all  these  considerations  concentrate  their  force  on  one 
and  the  same  point,  and  show  the  necessity  for  revelation, 
and  the  importance  of  it ;  and  they  show  also  that  the 
expectation  of  a  revelation  from  God  is  rational  and  is 
well  founded,  since,  without  a  revelation,  all  attempts  at 
worship  are  directed  to  ^^  an  unknown  QodP 

If  no  revelation  has  been  vouchsafed  to  us,  then  we 
are  floating  on  the  vast  ocean  of  existence  ignorant  of 
our  origin,  ignorant  of  our  destiny,  without  direction, 
without  guide,  without  hope — ^like  a  ship  at  sea  without 
rudder,  without  charts,  without  compass,  without  any 
means  of  ascertaining  her  position,  or  of  controlhng  her 
course,  driven  hither  and  thither,  the  sport  of  every  tem- 
pest, helpless  as  a  log,  and  completely  at  the  mercy  of  the 
winds  and  the  waves. 


LECTURE   III. 

THE  BIBLE  IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD. 
2  Tim.  iii.  16.—"  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God." 

Having  presented  some  of  the  considerations  which 
go  to  prove  the  necessity  for  a  revelation  from  God  to 
man,  I  propose  now  to  show  that  the  Bible  is  such  a  reve- 
lation; that  it  is  a  divinely  inspired  book.  I  do  not 
maintain  merely  that  the  Bible  contains  a  revelation ;  for 
that  might  be  true  if  only  a  small  part  were  inspired, 
(the  Gospel  of  John,  for  instance,)  while  the  rest  might 
be  myth,  or  full  of  error,  or  it  might  be,  at  best,  a  beau- 
tiful human  production.  More,  far  more  than  this,  we 
hold  and  shall  maintain.  We  believe  that  all  Scripture, 
the  whole  Bible,  was,  as  an  inspired  apostle  expressed  it, 
^' given  by  inspiration  of  Godf  so  that  the  Bible,  from 
first  to  last,  when  rightly  understood,  is  truth,  pure  truth, 
without  any  admixture  of  error.  This  is  the  one  only 
point  I  propose  now  to  illustrate.  What  is  meant  by 
the  Scriptures,  or  the  Bible,  it  is  not  necessary  here  to 
define.  The  sacred  book  is  now  in  every  house,  and  in 
the  hands  of  every  individual.  It  is  well  known  to  all. 
It  includes  the  Old  Testament,  i.  e.  those  writings  ascribed 
to  Moses  and  the  Hebrew  prophets,  those  books  which 


THE   BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD.  109 

have,  in  all  ages,  been  counted  sacred  among  the  Jews ; 
and  also  the  New  Testament,  i.  e.  the  four  gospels,  and 
the  epistles  or  letters,  ascribed  to  the  apostles,  Paul, 
James,  Jude,  Peter  and  John,  together  with  the  book  of 
Acts,  and  the  Apocalypse  or  Revelation.  All  these  have 
been  received  as  divinely  inspired,  from  the  earliest  ages 
of  the  Christian  Church. 

The  Apocrypha  we  reject,  because,  though  containing 
writings  of  unquestionable  antiquity,  the  production  of 
devout,  and  generally  discreet  men,  yet  the  true  marks 
of  inspiration  are  wanting  in  the  Apocrypha. 

TJie  hooks  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  are  divinely  in- 
spired. 

1st.  These  booJcs  are  ofgreat^  some  of  them  of  extreme  an- 
tiquity. We  can  satisfactorily  trace  them  to  the  several 
aeras  when  they  claim  to  have  been  written. 

The  Bible  is,  as  every  one  is  aware,  a  collection  of 
several  distinct  works,  little  books,  or  tracts,  written  on 
very  different  subjects,  and  by  many  different  authors ;  at 
different  periods,  also,  extending  altogether  over  a  space 
of  about  1600  years,  from  Moses  to  John,  the  last  of  the 
apostles. 

The  writings  of  the  New  Testament  can  be  satisfacto- 
rily traced,  partly  by  venerable  manuscripts,  and  partly 
by  references  to  them,  and  by  quotations  from  them  in 
writers  of  established  reputation,  back  to  a  period  not 
very  far  removed  from  the  time  of  the  first  planting  of 
the  Christian  churches  by  the  Apostles  and  the  immedi- 
ate disciples  of  Christ.  This  has  been  clearly  proved  by 
various  industrious  writers,  and  especially  by  Dr.  Lard- 
ner  in  his  great  work,  "  The  Gredihility  of  the  Gospel  His 
toryj'^  in  which  that  learned  and  impartial  author  has 


110         THE   BIBLE   IS  A   REVELATION   FROM   GOD. 

shown,  that  the  principal  facts  recorded  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament are  confirmed  by  passages  of  ancient  authors  who 
were  contemporary  with  our  Saviour,  or  his  Apostles,  or 
who  lived  near  their  time.  Indeed,  so  numerous  are  the 
passages  from  different  parts  of  the  New  Testament 
quoted  in  writers  of  the  earlier  ages  of  Christianity,  that, 
were  the  New  Testament  lost,  it  might  be  almost  fully 
restored  by  collecting  these  several  quotations  from  it. 

Again.  Many  proofs  turn  up  incidentally,  of  the  gen- 
uineness and  truth  of  the  New  Testament  writings; 
proofs  found  in  allusions  to  men  and  events,  to  customs 
and  to  laws,  peculiar  to  those  times ;  which  may  be  sup- 
posed well  known  to  the  writers  of  the  times,  but  which 
a  forger  of  spurious  documents  would  be  certain  to  have 
overlooked.  This  kind  of  evidence  is  presented  with 
great  force  and  beauty  by  Dr.  Paley,  in  his  Hora3  Pau- 
linae.  A  striking  instance  of  this  kind  of  evidence  has 
been  recently  adduced. 

It  had  been  objected  by  the  celebrated  German  ration- 
alist. Dr.  Strauss,  and  others,  that  by  the  inaccuracies  in 
some  of  their  statements,  the  New  Testament  writers  had 
betrayed  themselves,  and  furnished  conclusive  proofs 
that  the  books  bearing  the  names  of  these  writers,  were 
the  product  of  a  period  considerably  posterior  to  the 
apostolic  age ;  because  no  writer  of  that  time  could  have 
been  ignorant  of  the  real  facts. 

For  instance,  Luke  calls  Gallio  ^^  Proconsul  of  Achatay 
(Acts  xviii.  12.)  We  should  not  have  expected  it,  since, 
though  Achaia  was  originally  a  senatorial  province,  Ti- 
berias had  changed  it  into  an  imperial  one,  and  the  title 
of  its  governor  was,  therefore,  Procurator.  But  now,  a 
passage  in  Suetonius  informs  us,  that  Claudius  had  re- 


THE   BIBLE   IS  A  KEVELATION   FROM   GOD.  Ill 

stored  the  province  to  the  Senate :  and  thus,  most  unex- 
pectedly it  turns  out,  that  Luke  has  given  the  correct 
designation. 

Again.  Luke  calls  Sergius  Paulus  Oovernor  of  Cyprus^ 
(Acts  xiii.  4-7 :)  yet  we  might  have  expected  to  find  in 
Cyprus  only  a  praetor,  since  Cyprus  was  an  imperial 
province.  In  this  case  also,  (remarks  the  celebrated  Dr. 
Tholuck,)  the  correctness  of  the  historian  has  been  re- 
markably attested.  For  coins^  and  later  still,  a  passage 
in  Dion  Cassius,  have  been  found,  giving  proof  that  Au- 
gustus restored  this  province  to  the  Senate :  and  thus,  as 
if  purposely  to  vindicate  the  Evangelist,  the  old  historian 
adds,  "  thus  proconsuls  began  to  he  sent  into  that  island  also^ 
(Transl.  from  Tholuck,  pp.  21,  22.)  In  the  same  manner 
coins  have  been  found  proving  that  Luke  is  correct  in 
some  other  passages  of  his  writings,  the  accuracy  of 
which  had  been  disputed. 

Is  it  not  fair,  then,  to  suppose,  that  other  apparent  dis- 
crepancies of  the  same  order,  may  be  eventually  removed 
by  similar  evidence  ?  (Edinb.  Eeview,  October,  1849,  p. 
180.) 

It  has  often  been  alleged  by  infidels,  and  the  allegation 
is  reiterated  by  Strauss,  that  in  the  several  accounts  of 
the  resurrection  of  Christ,  given  by  the  Evangelists,  ir- 
reconcilable contradictions  occur,  absolutely  fatal  to  the 
whole  story.  Gilbert  West,  in  his  book  on  the  Eesur- 
rection,  has  long  since  triumphantly  refuted  these  very 
objections.  Mitchell's  "  Guide  against  Infidelity, ^^  may  be 
consulted  with  advantage  on  this  point,  (pp.  71-152.) 

As  to  the  Old  Testament,  our  copies  correspond  with 
those  in  possession  of  the  Jews,  and  by  them  held  in  so 
great  reverence,  that  many  centuries  since,  the  learned 


112          THE   BIBLE   IS   A  REVELATION   FROM   GOD. 

rabbins  counted  every  word  and  every  letter  in  each  of 
the  books  of  which  the  Old  Testament  is  composed ;  and 
so  careful  were  they  in  transcribing  copies  of  their  law, 
V.  e.  of  the  Old  Testament  scriptures,  that  if,  in  writing  it 
out,  the  copyist  omitted  one  letter,  or  introduced  a  super- 
fluous one ;  or  if  the  parchment  became  blotted,  it  was 
put  aside  as  useless ;  the  whole  copy  was  regarded  as 
spoiled.  With  such  care  employed  from  time  immemo- 
rial, a  mistake  of  any  consequence  was  almost  impossible. 

Besides  this,  we  have  furnished  us  in  the  writings  of 
Josephus,  a  learned  Jew  of  the  age  next  succeeding  that 
of  Christ,  a  list  of  the  books  held  sacred  by  the  Jews.  It 
corresponds  with  that  of  the  books  making  up  the  Old 
Testament  as  we  have  it.  Josephus  gave  also  a  history 
of  his  nation,  taken  from  the  Jewish  scriptures  of  his 
day.  That  history  corresponds,  in  all  its  leading  facts, 
with  the  contents  of  the  Old  Testament  now. 

Furthermore,  a  Greek  translation  of  the  Old  Testament 
had  been  extensively  used,  for  two  centuries  before  Jose- 
phus, among  the  Jews  scattered  in  different  provinces  of 
the  Roman  empire  in  which  the  Greek  language  gene- 
rally prevailed. 

Moreover,  the  prophetic  and  the  historical  books  do 
mutually  illustrate  and  corroborate  each  other,  furnish- 
ing also  points  of  contact  with  the  history  of  other  na- 
tions of  antiquity,  and  exhibiting  a  series  of  historical 
events  running  back  to  the  times  of  Joshua,  the  im- 
mediate successor  of  Moses.  The  circumstances  of  the 
case  are  such,  that  deception  and  mistake  are  almost 
impossible. 

For  the  authenticity  of  no  ancient  book  extant  is  there 
evidence  so  abundant,  varied  and  satisfactory,  as  there  is 


THE  BIBLE  IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD.         113 

for  that  of  the  Bible,  and  especially  for  that  of  the  five 
books  of  Moses. 

The  Bible,  it  is  certain,  contains  the  most  ancient 
books  now  existing  in  the  world :  and  the  several  docu- 
ments of  which  it  is  composed,  were  demonstrably  writ- 
ten at  the  times  to  which  they  are,  respectively,  ascribed. 
There  is  no  room  for  the  suspicion,  that  forgeries,  of 
more  modern  date,  may  have  been  foisted  in  among  them. 

Again,  2d.  The  Bible  itself  claims  to  he  inspired.  Mo- 
ses, in  the  laws  he  enacted,  and  the  institutions  he  estab- 
lished for  Israel,  did  most  explicitly  and  repeatedly 
declare,  that  he  followed  the  instructions  given  to  him  by 
Jehovah  himself,  (see  Ex.  iii.  7-10 ;  vi.  1 ;  vii.  1 ;  Levit.  vi. 
1 ;  viii.  1 ;  xxv.  1.  &c.  Deut.  xxvi.  16-18.)  The  deca- 
logue was  proclaimed  in  audible  tones  from  Mount  Sinai, 
in  the  hearing  of  all  Israel. 

The  Jewish  prophets  do,  one  and  all,  aver,  that  they 
spake  and  wrote  only  as  the  Divine  Spirit  directed. 
They  wrote  from  his  dictation,  (Isa.  i.  1,  10,  18  ;  ii.  1 ;  vi. 
1 ;  Ixvi.  1 ;  Jer.  i.  2 ;  ii.  1 ;  vii.  1.  Ezek.  i.  1 ;  vi.  1 ; 
xii.  1.  Dan.  ix.  12,  13,  &c.  &c.)  Jesus  Christ  did  une- 
quivocally recognize  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  as  divinely 
inspired:  (see  John  v.  39.     Luke  xvi.  16  ;  xix.  29.) 

The  Apostles  tell  us  that  the  psalmist  was  a  prophet, 
(Acts  ii.  30 ;)  and  that  the  Holy  Ghost  spake  by  David, 
(Acts  iv.  25.  Heb.  iv.  7 ;)  by  Joel,  (Acts  ii.  17 ;  compare 
also  Heb.  iii.  7,  with  Ps.  xcv.  7 ;  and  also  Heb.  ix.  7,  8, 
with  Exod.  XXX.  19,  &c.)  Yea,  the  Apostles  tell  us  that 
all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God:  and  Peter 
ranks  the  writings  of  Paul  with  the  other  Scriptures  ;  (2 
Pet.  iii.  15-16  ;)  while  John  pronounces  a  terrific  curse  on 
the  man  who  shall  add  to,  or  take  from  the  words  of  the 

;Uiri7EESIT7j 


114         THE   BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION   FROM   GOD. 

book  written  by  inspiration,  (Rev.  xxii.  19.)  The  books 
which  go  to  make  up  our  Bible,  are  venerable  from  their 
extreme  antiquity  ;  and  unless  the  writers  of  them  were 
shameless  impostors,  and  wicked  liars,  these  books  are 
pure  truth,  having  been  penned,  from  first  to  last,  under 
the  teaching  and  the  control  of  God  himself 

But,  3d.  In  Hie  Bible  nothing  is  found  inconsistent  with 
this  high  claim.  Not  a  few  there  are,  in  our  day,  who 
openly,  maintain  that  the  Bible  is  but  one  among  the 
many  mythical  systems  of  religion,  which  have  origina- 
ted in  the  remote  antiquity  of  different  nations ;  and  that 
the  lapse  of  time  it  is,  which  has  gradually  clothed  with 
a  supernatural  garb  events,  simple  and  natural  in  their 
origin.  Hence  they  boldly  conclude  the  several  books 
of  the  Bible  could  not  have  been  written  at  the  time  as- 
cribed to  them,  because  a  long  succession  of  ages  was 
requisite  to  introduce  into  the  tradition^  on  which  alone, 
(as  they  contend,)  all  these  narratives  must  have  been 
based,  its  supernatural  portion. 

It  is  obvious,  however,  that  this  pretended  philosophic 
view  of  the  subject,  rests  upon  nothing  else  than  a  rash 
assumption :  an  assumption  contradicted  by  all  the  his- 
torical facts  in  the  case ;  contradicted  by  the  full  proof 
which  we  have,  that  all  these  several  books  were  ivritten, 
from  the  Apocalypse  by  John,  back  to  the  five  books  of 
Moses,  in  the  very  ages  to  which  they  are  severally  as- 
cribed. 

But  now  compare  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  with  the 
sacred  myths  of  any  other  nation.  The  deities  that 
figured  on  the  Olympus  of  Greece,  and  were  honored  in 
the  Capitol  at  Eome,  were  shameless  reprobates,  whose 
intrigues,  jealousies,  meanness,  and  outrageous  passions 


THE  BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION  FEOM  GOD.         115 

would  not  be  tolerated  in  any  respectable  society  of  our 
times. 

In  India,  the  religious  system  was,  and  it  still  is,  a 
strange  compound  of  mystical  philosophy,  and  gross  in- 
decency :  while  even  the  gravest  and  the  purest  of  all  an- 
cient pagan  mythologies — that  prevailing  over  the  whole 
valley  of  the  Nile,  embraced  fables  of  the  most  puerile 
character,  notwithstanding  the  matchless  wisdom  claimed 
for  the  hierarchy  who  taught  it.  Witness  the  travels  of 
the  goddess  Isis,  in  search  of  the  body  of  her  murdered 
husband;  the  god  Osiris  ;  and  the  conflict  of  Isis  and  of 
her  son  Horus,  with  the  dreaded  god  Tryphoon,  (the 
murderer  of  Osiris,)  to  recover  possession  of  the  body. 
(See  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson's  Mann,  and  Gust,  of  the  Ancient 
Egyptians,  2d  series,  vol  i.  pp.  329-333.)  No  such  child- 
ish fables  are  given  in  the  Bible.  Ilere  there  is  nothing 
monstrous  or  unnatural;  nothing,  even,  weak  or  frivo- 
lous ;  nothing  merely  human,  in  the  sentiments  or  the 
conduct,  attributed  to  the  Deity. 

The  entire  absence  from  the  Bible  of  all  such  silly 
narratives,  such  impossible  monstrosities,  such  degrading 
passions,  and  of  such  debasing  views  and  revolting  pic- 
tures, as  abound  in  the  myths  of  all,  even  the  most  in- 
tellectual and  refined  of  the  nations  of  antiquity,  shows 
the  immeasurable  superiority  of  the  Bible  above  all  other 
of  the  so  called  sacred  writings^  and  it  bespeaks,  for  the 
Bible,  an  origin  in  truth. 

Again,  4th.  Not  only  is  there,  in  the  Bible,  not?iing  in- 
consistent with  a  divine  origin,  but  it  is,  in  every  point,  wor- 
thy of  its  high  claim.  This  is  true,  whether  you  contem- 
plate the  beautiful  simplicity  of  its  style,  the  majesty  with 
which  it  clothes  every  representation  of  the  Deity,  as  a 


116         THE  BIBLE  IS  A  KEVELATION  FROM  GOD. 

pure  spirit,  self-existent  and  indestructible,  wise,  just, 
and  good ;  whether  you  look  at  the  imre  morality  taught 
in  the  Bible,  the  wonderful  doctrines  it  unfolds,  the  wise 
maxims  it  records,  or  the  reasonable  duties  it  enjoins. 
Every  page  of  this  matchless  book,  beams  with  won- 
ders !  wonders  of  wisdom  and  of  kindness.  It  relates 
the  most  astonishing  events  with  the  calm  simplicity  of 
conscious  truth.  No  exaggeration  is  found  in  this  book; 
no  labored  attempt  at  display ;  no  effort  to  surprise.  Its 
writers  express  themselves  with  the  unmistakable  dig- 
nity of  conviction.  The  representation  given  of  God  is 
grand  beyond  compare :  and  it  is,  in  every  point,  a  repre- 
sentation well  comporting  with  the  Great  First  Cause  ; 
"  with  whom  is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  oftuiiiing  /" 

The  idea  of  creative  might  is  presented  with  match- 
less simplicity  and  beauty.  "  Ood  said^  Let  iliere  be  light; 
and  Uiere  was  light  /"  He  called  the  whole  universe  into 
being  with  his  word.  "  He  spake,  and  it  was  done  ;  he  com- 
manded, and  it  stood  fast  T^  While  the  tenderness  and 
compassion  of  the  Deity  are  expressed  with  inimitable 
sweetness.  *'  JeJiovah  is  mefrciful  and  gracious,  long-suffer- 
ing and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,"  yea,  ^^li/ce  as  a 
father  pitieth  his  children^  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear 
Him."     Ps.  ciii.  8,  13. 

Where,  in  all  the  records  of  Egyptian  wisdom,  can 
you  find  sentiments  like  these?  Where,  amid  all  the 
reasonings  of  Grecian  sages,  or  of  Eoman  moralists,  will 
you  meet  with  so  copious  a  treasury  of  sound,  practical 
instruction  as  the  book  of  Proverbs  contains?  And 
where,  among  all  the  learned  of  antiquity,  or  the  pol- 
ished and  subtle  disputants  of  Islamism,  or  of  Buddhism, 
will  you  light  upon  views  of  the  common  brotherhood 


THE  BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION  FE'OM   GOD.  117 

of  all  men,  together  with  moral  precepts  so  just,  so  rea- 
sonable, so  all-comprehensive,  and  so  kind,  withal,  as 
those  with  which  the  Bible  abounds?  "  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself j^''  is  a  precept  so  unique,  yet  so 
reasonable,  so  simple,  yet  so  comprehensive,  as  that  it, 
of  itself,  may  be  said  to  stamp  the  book  which  first  pre- 
sented it,  with  the  unmistakable  marks  of  a  divine 
origin  ! 

View  it  on  whatever  side,  and  in  whatsoever  light  you 
will,  and  the  Bible  stands  forth  as  a  document  every  way 
worthy  of  the  high  origin  it  claims.  It  is  from  God :  it 
can  have  proceeded  from  none  other  ! 

Another  kind  of  evidence  is  that — 

Fifth,  furnished  by  miracles. 

A  miracle  has  been  defined  to  be  a  temporary  suspen- 
sion of  the  laws  of  nature.  For  instance,  the  dividing  of 
the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea,  before  the  advancing  bands  of 
Israel,  simply  on  the  extension  of  his  rod  over  the 
waters,  by  Moses  ;  the  falling  dovjn  of  the  walls  of  Jericho 
at  the  blowing  of  the  rams'  horns,  by  order  of  Joshua ; 
the  sudden  withering  of  the  fig-tree  cursed  by  Christ ;  and 
the  walking  of  Christ  upon  the  surface  of  the  sea  of  Tiherias, 
were  all  miracles,  because  these  effects  were  brought 
about  in  such  manner,  as  that  the  ordinary  operation  of 
the  laws  of  nature  was  interrupted. 

The  laws  of  nature  are  those  which  God  himself  has 
established,  and  the  operation  of  which  continues  un- 
changed, at  all  ordinary  times,  and  in  all  places.  To 
alter  these  laws,  or  to  interrupt  their  regular  operation, 
is  beyond  human  power.  If,  on  any  occasion,  these 
laws  be  interrupted,  or  suspended,  it  must  be,  because 
God,  who  impressed  these  laws  upon  the  material  uni- 


118         THE   BIBLE   IS  A   REVELATION   FROM   GOD. 

verse,  has  so  willed  it.  If,  on  any  occasion,  these  laws 
have  been  interrupted  at  the  bidding  of  mortal  man,  the 
fact  of  such  interruption,  is  itself  a  proof  that  the  power 
so  to  do,  has,  for  the  occasion,  been  delegated  to  that 
man.  In  all  nations,  and  in  all  ages,  this  has  been  felt 
and  admitted.  Nicodemus  but  expressed  the  instinctive 
feeling  of  every  human  mind,  when  he  said  to  Jesus, 
"  No  man  can  do  these  miracles^  except  God  be  ivith  himy 
Suppose  you  should  see  me  step  forth  before  you  all,* 
and  take  my  stand  in  front  of  this  edifice,  and  while  the 
heavens  are  clear  and  cloudless  over  our  heads,  I  should 
command  the  clouds  to  assemble,  and  rain  to  fall  copi- 
ously on  one  single  well-defined  spot,  (say  over  ewQiy 
inch  of  surface  inclosed  within  the  railings  surrounding 
La  Fayette  Square,  immediately  fronting  this  structure, 
and  not  one  drop  to  fall  outside  that  inclosure,)  and  that 
you  should  then  see  the  thick  masses  of  dark  clouds  sud- 
denly coming  up,  and  rapidly  gathering  overhead,  and 
torrents  of  rain  descending  forthwith  on  that  precise 
spot,  and  that  only,  not  wetting  even  a  hair's  breadth  be- 
yond it,  and  then,  at  my  bidding,  you  should  see  the 
rain  instantly  cease,  the  clouds  disperse  and  disappear, 
leaving  the  heavens  serene  and  bright  as  before.  Or 
suppose  you  should,  at  my  instance,  follow  me  to  your 
city  cemetery,  and  see  me  there  standing  before  the 
grave  of  one  whom  you  had  all  seen  a  corpse,  and  seen 
there  interred  some  three  or  four  days  antecedently; 
and  at  my  bidding  you  should  see  that  buried  corpse 
rise,  bursting  through  the  earth  or  the  masonry  that  had 

*  Delivered  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  on  La  Fayette  Square,  New 
Orleans,  January,  1852. 


THE  BIBLE  IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD.         119 

been  placed  over  it,  and  stand  forth  before  you  all,  alive, 
healthy,  active,  and  vigorous,  as  you  had  known  that 
person  for  months  and  years  previously  ;  there  is  not  one 
here,  whatever  be  his  theoretic  sentiments,  who  would  not 
feel  convinced,  for  the  time  at  least,  that  this  had  been 
done  by  the  direct  interference  of  God  himself,  and  done 
to  secure  some  important  end.  You  would  instinctively 
feel,  this  is  a  miracle;  and  could  have  been  wrought 
only  by  the  power  of  God. 

It  is  true,  some  learned  men  have  denied  the  occur- 
rence, nay,  even  the  possibility  of  miracles.  The  laws 
of  nature,  they  tell  us,  are  fixed  and  unchangeable,  the 
sequence  of  cause  and  effect  is  invariably  the  same. 
And,  therefore,  every  narrative  which  either  asserts  or 
implies  a  miracle,  is  necessarily  false ;  or  else,  it  is  a  myth, 
a  mere  fable,  or  an  allegory. 

All  nations,  they  tell  us,  have  had  their  myths;  their 
early  religious  traditions  encumbered  with  such  fables  ; 
and  why  should  the  Jewish  mjgihs,  Mosaic  or  Evangelic, 
be  interpreted  by  any  other  rule  ?  (See  Strauss'  Life  of 
Jesus.)  I  answer :  A  bold  denial  is  no  argument.  A  mere 
assertion  that  the  narratives  of  miracles  found  in  the 
Bible,  are  myths,  is  no  proof  The  difference  between 
the  character  and  the  occasion  of  the  miracles  related  in 
the  Bible,  and  the  fables  of  heathen  mythology,  is  great 
as  that  between  light  and  darkness. 

In  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  Bible,  there  is  nothing 
puerile,  nothing  secret  or  clandestine,  nothing  ridiculous. 
They  were  wrought  in  open  da}^,  in  the  presence  of  many 
witnesses, — wrought  on  occasions  of  great  moment,  and 
of  deep  interest,  and  wrought  for  ends  worthy  of  the  in- 
terference of  the  Deity.     They  were  wrought  to  punish 


120         THE   BIBLE   IS  A   REVELATION   FROM   GOD. 

gross  wickedness,  to  protect  the  worshipers  of  the  true 
God  ;  wrought  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  instruction  of 
a  select  nation,  and  through  them,  for  the  instruction  of 
all  manhind,  in  truths  of  the  highest  importance  to  all, — 
truths  which,  as  all  history  shows,  men  could  in  no  other 
way  obtain ! 

That  there  is  an  Intelligent  First  Cause  of  all  things,  that 
the  laws  of  nature  are  those  which  He  has  seen  fit  to  estab- 
lish, and  that  He  can^  if  He  shall  see  fit,  alter,  modify,  or 
suspend  for  a  time,  the  operation  of  these  laws,  no  sane 
mind  can  doubt. 

If,  now,  man  he  immortal^  if  a  life  of  endless  duration 
awaits  him  after  death,  then  the  destinies  of  man  stamp 
upon  him  a  value  immeasurably  greater  than  that  of  the 
globe,  or  of  any  merely  material  masses,  however  vast, 
however  diversified,  how  magnificently  soever  they  may 
be  arranged. 

If  man  be  immortal,  then  the  occasional  interruption 
of  the  operation  of  laws  trapressed  upon  merely  material 
masses,  was  an  expedient  worthy  to  be  employed  by  the 
Author  of  nature,  as  the  very  means  which  could  best 
(perhaps  the  only  means  which  could)  arrest  the  attention 
of  man,  and  prepare  him  to  receive  with  full  belief,  for 
his  guidance  as  to  his  eternal  interests,  the  instruction  so 
presented  to  him*  because  such  interruption  of  the  laws 
of  nature,  furnishes  attestation  unequivocal  and  deci- 
sive, that  the  instruction  so  introduced  came  from  God, 
his  Maker ;  for,  "  No  man  can  perform  a  miracle,  eoccepi 
God  be  with  him  /" 

Such  miraculous  attestation  Moses  gave  to  Israel,  in 
the  plagues  sent  at  his  word,  upon  Egypt, — ^in  his  leading 
Israel  dry-shod  through  the  Ked  Sea,  while  the  hosts  of 


THE  BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD.         121 

Egypt,  attempting  to  follow  them,  perished  therein, — in 
the  law  given  by  him  from  Mount  Sinai, — in  his  causing 
water  to  rush  from  the  rock  at  Horeb ;  and  on  many 
other  occasions. 

Such  attestations  Joshua  gave  at  Jericho,  and  in  the 
preternatural  lengthening  of  the  day  at  the  battle  in  the 
valley  of  Ajalon,  Josh.  x.  12,  13.  Such  attestation  gave 
also  Elijah,  when,  in  the  presence  of  all  Israel,  the  priests 
of  Baal  called  in  vain  on  their  gods,  while  promptly  in  an- 
swer to  Elijah's  prayer,  fire  came  down  upon  the  altar, 
and  licked  up  the  water  with  which  the  victims  and  the 
altar  had  been  saturated,  and  the  very  trenches  around 
the  altar  were  filled. 

In  regard  to  the  Mosaic  miracles,  it  is  an  absolute  im- 
possibility that  the  whole  Jewish  nation  could  have  been 
deceived.  The  actual  occurrence  of  the  miracles  record- 
ed in  the  Pentateuch,  and  their  occurrence  as  there  re- 
corded, furnishes  the  only  rational  explanation  of  the 
existence  of  the  Jews,  with  all  their  peculiar  rites,  cus- 
toms, and  religious  observances. 

They  who  deny  the  miracles  of  Moses,  are  compelled 
to  deny  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  Pentateuch ;  be- 
cause the  acutest  among  all  these  skeptical  deniers,  see 
and  admit,  that  if  Moses,  the  Jewish  lawgiver,  did  really 
write  the  Pentateuch,  and  deliver  a  copy  of  it  in  the  pres- 
ence of  all  the  people,  into  the  hands  of  the  priests,  to  be 
by  them  laid  up  in  the  sides  of  the  ark,  there  to  be  pre- 
served as  a  public  and  perpetual  memorial  of  their  early 
history  ;  and  of  the  origin  of  their  peculiar  religious 
rites,  (as  in  Deut.  xxxi.  24-26,  it  is  asserted  that  Moses 
did,)  then  all  the  miracles  must  have  taken  place,  just  as 
therein  related  ;  and  in  that  case,  the  Pentateuch  is  a  true 

6 


122         THE   BIBLE   IS  A   REVELATION   FROM   GOD. 

historic  document.  The  authenticity  of  the  Pentateuch, 
as  the  work  of  Moses,  being  once  established,  the  accu- 
racy of  the  narrative,  and  the  truth  of  the  miracles  it  re- 
cords, follow  inevitably.  But,  for  the  authenticity  of  the 
Pentateuch,  there  is  a  body  of  evidence  more  direct, 
copious  and  forcible,  than  there  is  for  the  genuineness  of 
any  book  of  antiquity. 

In  like  manner,  the  hooks  of  the  New  Testament  can  be 
traced  back  to  the  times  in  which  they  claim  to  have  been 
written.  All  the  earliest  writers  who  mention  Chris- 
tianity, agree  in  dating  the  time  when  Christianity  had  its 
origin^  as  the  New  Testament  writers  do.  Furthermore : 
the  writings  of  the  Apostles  and  Evangelists  are  proved 
to  be  authentic  and  genuine,  by  the  universally  admitted 
fact,  that  the  most  ancient  Christian  writers— ^eveM  those 
contemporary  with  the  Apostles^  as  Clemens  Romanus,  Ig- 
natius, &c. — make  quotations  from  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  ascribe  them  to  the  Apostles  of  Jesus 
Christ.  (See  the  Prelections  of  Michaelis.)  Tertullian 
even  appeals  to  the  original  manuscripts  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, as  existing  in  his  day.  (Vide  de  Proscriptioni- 
bus,  sec.  36.)  A  version  of  the  New  Testament  in  the 
Syriac  language,  was  made  at  a  very  early  period,  prob- 
ably within  less  than  a  century  after  the  time  of  the 
Apostles. 

It  is  remarkable,  also,  that  the  early  opposers  of  the  gos- 
pel did  not  deny  the  miracles  performed  by  Christ  and  his 
Apostles,  but  sought  to  account  for  them  by  magic,  or  by 
natural  causes.  This  is  distinctly  proved  from  the  writ- 
ings of  the  early  apologists  for  Christianity.  Moreover, 
the  controversies  which  arose,  and  the  opposition  to  the 
gospel  which  was  made  in  the  early  ages  of  the  church, 


THE  BIBLE   IS  A   REVELATION   FROM   GOD.         123 

sprang,  not  from  doubts  regarding  the  divine  origin  of 
the  gospels  and  the  epistles,  but  rather,  because  in  those 
early  ages  many  desired  to  make  the  teachings  of  the 
New  Testament  accord  to  their  preconceived  notions  and 
philosophical  theories.  (See  Mitchell's  Guide,  pp.  174, 175.) 
Moreover,  it  has  been  shown  by  Mr.  Babbage  (9th  Bridg- 
water Treatise)  that,  on  the  very  principles  on  which 
Hume  based  his  celebrated  objection  against  miracles,  it 
is  immensely  more  probable,  even  on  the  mathematical 
doctrine  of  chances,  that  miracles  should  occur,  than  that 
several  independent  witnesses  should  testify  falsely  to 
the  same  statement.  The  fact,  then,  being  once  estab- 
lished, that  the  miracles  recorded  in  the  Bible  did  really 
take  place,  proves  conclusively  that  God,  the  author  of 
nature,  has  given  his  sanction  to  the  Bible  AS  TRUE  ! 

But  again,  6th.  Prophecy  furnishes  another^  a  distinct^ 
and  a  conclusive  evidence  that  the  Bible  is  from  Ood.  To 
foresee  the  occurrence  of  future  and  far  distant  events,  is 
obviously  beyond  the  utmost  stretch  of  human  sagacity. 
So  many  agencies  are  everywhere  at  work,  beyond  the 
control  of  man — so  many  influences,  from  unanticipated 
sources,  may  spring  up  to  modify  the  result  of  any  given 
series  of  events,  that  human  foresight  is  speedily  at  fault ; 
and  although,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  a  probable 
conjecture  may  be  formed,  and  a  prediction  founded  on 
such  probability  may  now  and  then  be  verified,  yet  every 
one  feels  that  to  predict  vjith  certainty^  as  to  time  and  man- 
ner^ events  yet  future,  transcends  the  power  of  man  I 
When,  in  compliance  with  the  earnest  entreaty  of  Pha- 
raoh, that  the  plague  of  frogs  should  be  removed,  and 
again  that  of  flies,  Moses  had  said,  "  To-morrow  shall  the 
plague  ceasej^  the  promise  was  a  prediction  ;  which,  being 


124         THE  BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD. 

verified  at  the  time  specified,  Pharaoh  knew  full  well 
could  have  been  uttered  only  by  inspiration  from  God. 
(Exod.  viii.  10,  29.) 

Isaiah  predicted  (Isa.  xlv.  1-5 ;  xiii.  1,  2,  17-22)  the 
overthrow  of  the  mighty  Babylon,  by  Cyrus  the  Mede. 
Many  years  afterwards  that  prediction  was  verified  to 
the  very  letter  ;  clearly  showing  that  Isaiah  had  delivered 
his  prophecy  under  the  guidance  of  the  Omniscient  Spirit, 
who  alone  seeth  the  end  from  the  beginning.  (Isa.  xiii. 
19,  and  compare  Dan.  v.  28-31.) 

In  like  manner,  the  exact  fulfilment  of  the  predictions 
respecting  the  destruction  of  Tyre,  (Isa.  xxiii. ;)  of  Sidon, 
(Isa.  xxiii. ;)  of  Nineveh,  (Zeph.  ii.  13,  14,  15  ;)  and  those 
denouncing  the  fall  and  degradation  of  Egypt,  at  that 
time  the  most  powerful  nation  on  the  globe,  (Isa.  xix. ;) 
the  predictions  uttered  by  Jesus  Christ,  respecting  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Romans,  with  all  the  un- 
exampled horrors  of  that  event — predictions  uttered  by 
Christ  and  recorded  by  the  Evangelists,  and  published 
to  the  world  many  years  before  the  time  of  Titus  and 
Vespasian ;  and  the  condition  of  the  Jews  to  this  day,  a 
distinct  race,  scattered  abroad  everywhere  among  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  and  everywhere  oppressed  and  de- 
spised, so  precisely  accordant  to  the  reiterated  predictions 
of  their  own  ancient  prophets,  (see  Deut.  xxviii.  63-66 ;)  all 
bespeak  the  controlling  power  of  unerring  wisdom,  ex- 
erted upon  the  minds  of  the  prophets,  and  of  the  writers 
of  the  several  books  of  the  Bible,  and  prove  that  Bible  to 
be  true — to  be  the  word  of  God — the  dictate  of  inspiration. 

Again,  7th.  The  influence  upon  mankind  exerted  by  the 
Bible,  proves  it  divine  ;  or  at  least  well  comports  with  the 
idea  that  it  is  divine. 


THE   BIBLE  IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD.         125 

A  communication  from  God,  professing  to  detail  our 
duties,  and  to  instruct  us  in  truths  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance, might  well  be  expected  to  prove  powerful  in  its 
influences,  and  eminently  beneficial  to  man,  far  as  the 
knowledge  of  it  should  extend:  and  such,  in  fact,  we 
find  to  be  the  case. 

Look  the  world  throughout,  and  wherever  you  find 
civilization,  humanity  to  the  defenceless  and  to  enemies, 
combined  with  refinement  of  manners  and  dignity  of  sen- 
timent, there  you  find  the  Bible  known,  and  its  doctrines 
promulgated. 

To  this,  there  are,  I  am  well  aware,  some  apparently 
signal  exceptions. 

In  times  of  old,  the  Greeks  and  the  Eomans  were,  at 
one  period,  eminently  civilized  and  refined:  and  yet 
they  had  no  Bible. 

True !  But  among  both  those  people,  the  corruption 
of  morals  was  incredible ;  and  the  lack  of  humanity  to 
the  vanquished  in  war,  was  extreme !  Witness  their  sys- 
tem ofhelotry,  with  the  barbarities  it  allowed,  in  their  do- 
mestic establishment ;  the  head  of  each  household  having 
the  power  of  life  and  of  death  over  his  children,  and  over 
his  slaves;  a  power  often  exercised  too.  Witness  also 
the  cruel  atrocities  practised  by  the  victorious  army  of 
Titus  himself,  the  Delight  of  mankind  though  he  was 
called,  on  the  miserable  Jewish  captives  crucified  by  thou- 
sands around  the  smoking  ruins  of  the  holy  city,  their 
beloved  Jerusalem  ! 

The  Persians^  Chaldceans  and  Assyrians  also,  as  ancient 
history  declares,  and  as  the  recent  explorations  made 
among  the  ruins  of  Persepolis  and  of  Nineveh  attest. 


126  THE   BIBLE   IS  A   REYELATION   FROM   GOD. 

were  nations  eminently  civilized,  and  yet  they  were  idol- 
aters, destitute  of  revelation  !  \ 

True  I  But  who  shall  say  how  far  patriarchal  tradi- 
tion respecting  the  divine  attributes  and  human  duties, 
may  have  been  preserved  among  these  nations,  an  anti- 
dote to  the  influence  of  popular  superstition,  an  incentive 
to  noble  sentiments  and  to  noble  deeds  !  The  hints  scat- 
tered over  the  prophetic  pages,  respecting  the  usages  and 
the  religious  notions  of  these  powerful  nations  of  oriental 
antiquity,  fully  warrant  the  position,  that  the  knowledge 
of  the  true  God  was  not  yet  entirely  lost  among  them. 
(See  Dan.  ii.  47;  iv.  8-13,  and  v.  34-37;  vi.  25-27,  and 
Jonah  ill.  5-9.) 

The  Chinese  also,  that  great  and  wonderful  nation,  a 
world  of  humanity  within  itself,  has,  from  an  extreme 
antiquity,  been  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  civilization. 
When  Europe  was  occupied  by  tribes  of  rude  barbari- 
ans, scattered  here  and  there,  in  feeble  settlements  among 
its  forests,  China  was  populous  and  powerful,  was  pos- 
sessed of  a  literature  and  of  laws.  Even  at  that  early 
period,  China  had  made  great  advances  in  knowledge  of 
the  arts,  and  in  useful  inventions.  In  China  the  mari- 
ner's  compass  was  even  then  employed,  being  attached  to 
vehicles  for  the  guidance  of  travellers  crossing  the  vast 
steppes  or  deserts  of  Upper  Asia.  A  very  singular  rec- 
ord, preserved  in  the  ancient  Chinese  annals,  assures  us 
of  this  fact. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Chinese  exhibit  annals,  or 
public  registers  of  their  empire,  claiming  an  extreme  an- 
tiquity, as  far  back  as  B.C.  2300 :  some  claim  to  B.C.  2600. 
They  speak  of  an  inscription  of  vast  antiquity  graven  on 
a  rock  on  the  mountain  Heng-chau,  and  ascribed  to  the 


THE    BIBLE   IS   A   REVELATION   P^KOM    GOD.  127 

emperor  Yu,  B.C.  2278.  This  time-worn  inscription  has 
been  deciphered  and  copied  into  their  public  annals. 
These  annals  furnish  another  striking  instance  of  early 
civilization.  In  the  reign  of  Choan-Kang,  who  is  de- 
scribed as  ascending  the  throne  B.C.  2159,  a  great  eclipse 
of  the  sun  occurred.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  royal  as- 
tronomers to  forewarn  the  monarch  of  the  approach  of 
such  phenomena.  The  astronomers  Ho  and  Hi,  who 
then  held  that  distinguished  post,  having  failed  to  fore- 
tell this  eclipse,  were  for  this  neglect  both  executed  as 
traitors.*     The  antiquity  claimed  for  these  Chinese  an- 

*  See  Chine,  par  M.  Pauthier,  p.  58.  Also  Du  Halde's  China,  vol.  i.  p. 
290.     Also  Bedford's  Scripture  Chronology,  p.  88. 

The  Chinese  annals  inform  us,  that  Hong-Chau,  the  mountain  on  the 
rock  of  which  the  inscription  of  Yu  was  found,  almost  obliterated  by 
time,  was  a  celebrated  mountain  in  China,  to  which,  in  ancient  times, 
their  raonarchs  annually  resorted  to  present  sacrifice  to  the  Supreme  In- 
telligence. Of  the  inscription  above  referred  to,  copies  have  been  pub- 
lished in  Europe,  accompanied  by  a  French  translation. 

In  1839,  when  the  learned  Orientalist,  M.  Pauthier,  published  his  work 
on  China,  none  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  discovered  at  Babylon  and 
Persepolis,  nor  of  those  found  in  Arabia  Petrae  and  Syria,  were  regarded 
as  older  than  the  time  of  Semiramis,  (b.c.  2100  ;)  and  as  the  researches 
of  Lepsius  in  Egypt  and  Nubia  had  not  then  been  made,  this  Chinese  in- 
scription was  considered  as  the  most  ancient  in  the  world.  For,  as  no 
Egyptian  monument  had  then  been  identified  beyond  the  time  of  Sesos- 
tris,  or  Ramses  the  Great,  (b.c.  2278,)  the  Chinese  monument  was  older 
by  several  years.  At  the  present  time,  an  antiquity  amounting  to  b.c. 
2300,  is  claimed  for  some  of  the  monuments  of  Egypt.  (See  Chine,  par 
M.  Pauthier,  p.  53.  Paris,  1839.)  Nay,  Egyptian  monuments  are  by  the 
resolute  Lepsius,  asserted  to  be  existing,  as  old  as  2500  years  before 
Abraham,  i.  e.  b.c.  4300.  (See  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Dec.  1847,  p. 
1035.)  We  can,  however,  now  add,  (Dec.  1851,)  that  the  still  later  re- 
searches of  Mr.  Stuart  Reginald  Poole,  the  results  of  which  have  been 
published  in  London  in  his  learned  work,  "  Horaj  Egyptiacse,"  seem  to 
prove  satisfactorily  from  the  evidence  presented  by  the  hieroglyphic  in- 


128         THE  BIBLE  IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD. 

nals,  is  unquestionably  too  great,  for  the  documents  now 
existing  among  the  Chinese,  were  chiefly  compiled  by 
Confucius  about  B.C.  530 :  yet  it  is  plain  that,  at  a  very 

scriptions  on  the  monnments  themselves,  that  many  of  the  Egyptian  dy- 
nasties were  really  contemporaneous,  and  that  the  chronology  of  the 
Egyptian  monuments,  the  true  key  to  it  being  at  length  found,  does  actu- 
ally corroborate,  and  very  nearly  coincide  with,  the  chronology  of  the 
Bible.  To  the  truth  and  trustworthiness  of  the  Egyptian  chronology 
thus  presented  to  the  world  by  Mr.  Poole,  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson  (than 
whom  no  man  living  is  a  more  competent  judge)  has  publicly  given  his 
attestation.  Moreover,  the  astronomical  calculations  on  which,  in  part, 
Mr.  Poole  bases  his  system,  have  been  examined,  and  their  correctness 
has  been  ascertained  and  certified  by  Mr.  Airy,  Astronomer  Royal  at 
Greenwich.  (See  Poole,  Hone  EgyptiacaB,  Preface,  p.  vii.  and  Introduc- 
tion, p.  xxii.,  note.) 

The  chronological  question  I  reserve  for  fuller  discnssion  hereafter. 
The  facts  only,  or  what  are,  in  these  Oriental  annals,  stated  as  facts,  am  I 
now  concerned  with. 

In  the  Chinese  annals  we  find  the  following  curious  statement: — 

The  emperor  Yao  began  to  reign  b.c.  2357.  In  the  5th  year  of  his 
reign,  (i.  c.  b.c.  2353,)  a  strange  event  occurred.  At  the  court  of  Yao 
there  arrived  from  the  South  (i.  e.  from  countries  south  of  China,)  a 
stranger,  a  barbarian,  of  the  family  or  race  named  You-6e-tchang,  bear- 
ing as  a  present  a  huge  tortoise  divine,  aged  1000  years,  and  above 
two  feet  long,  and  about  two  feet  broad,  having  on  its  back  characters  in 
writing,  Kho-t6ou,  i.  e.  shaped  like  tadpoles,  (a  forme  de  tetards,)  which 
characters  comprised  the  history  of  the  world,  from  the  earliest  times,  until 
then.  Yao  ordered  this  strange  text  to  be  transcribed ;  and  he  named  it 
Kou-ei-lie,  i.  e.  Annals  of  the  Tortoise. 

Now,  since  the  Egyptians  and  the  Phoenicians  were  the  only  nations, 
who,  at  that  early  period,  are  known  to  have  possessed  the  art  of  writing, 
the  learned  have  concluded  these  stranger  visitors  must  have  been  from 
the  one  or  the  other  of  those  nations,  most  probably  Phoenician ;  and 
that  the  strange  writing  was  one  of  the  books  of  Hermes.  (See  Essai 
sur  I'origine  et  la  Formation  similaire  des  Ecritures  Figuratives,  Chinoises 
et  Egyptiennes,  par  Mon.  G.  Pauthier,  p.  8.    Paris,  1842.) 

Nor  was  this  the  only  instance  of  the  kind.  Another  is  mentioned 
1242  years  later,  of  a  communication  of  the  same  nation  of  You-6e-tchang, 


THE  BIBLE  IS  A  EEVELATION  FKOM  GOD.         129 

early  period,  the  Chinese  were  greatly  advanced  in  civil- 
ization. 

Moreover,  the  books  now  revered  by  the  Chinese  as 

with  China.  This  occurred  in  the  6th  year  of  Tching-ooang,  i.  e.  b.c. 
1110.  (See  "  Chine,"  par  G.  Pauthier,  p.  87.)  The  text  of  the  Chinese 
historian  reads  thus :  "  Certain  persons,  You-ee-tchang,  came  to  the  court." 
The  annalist,  in  the  work  entitled,  "  Li-tai-Ki-sse,"  adds,  "  You-ee-tchang  is 
a  maritime  country  of  the  South,  frojn  which  three  linguists,  or  inter- 
preters, persons  of  the  highest  rank,  came  to  present  to  the  Emperor  of 
China  three  white  pheasants.  Tcheou-Koung,  (the  uncle  of  the  Empe- 
ror, and  also  the  prime  minister,)  presented  them  with  chariots  which  in- 
dicated the  south,"  {i.  e.  furnished  each  with  a  mariner's  compass,  or  an 
instrument  constructed  on  like  principles,)  in  order  to  guide  them  on  their 
return.  The  year  following  they  set  out  on  their  journey.  (Martin's 
China;  vol.  i.  p.  194,  Du  Halde,  vol.  i.  p.  274.  See  also  Humboldt's  Cos- 
mos, vol.  i.  p.  180,  vol.  ii.  p.  191.) 

From  the  mention  made  in  this  curious  record  of  white  plieasants,  birds 
found  only  in  South  Africa,  (Caffraria,)  learned  men  have  supposed  that 
these  strangers  must  have  been  Egyptians.  But,  since  this  record,  if  at 
all  authentic,  must  relate  to  events  occurring  about  the  time  when  vessels 
from  Tyre  and  Sidon  sailed  to  Ophir  for  gold  for  the  temple  of  Solomon, 
it  is  not  improbable  that  Phoenicians,  accompanied  by  Jews,  may  have 
reached  China  at  this  early  period,  bearing  with  them  some  of  the  curi- 
ous products  of  the  countries  they  touched  at  on  their  voyage,  and  thus 
the  art  of  writing  may  have  been  conveyed  to  China,  (Essai  sur  I'Ori- 
gine,  &c.,  p.  10,  and  note.) 

We  know  with  certainty  that  Chinese  bottles  have  been  found  in 
Egypt,  in  some  of  the  tombs  of  high  antiquity.  Wilkinson's  Man.  and 
Cust.  1st  series,  vol.  iii,  pp.  106,  107.  See  Pickering  on  the  Races  pp. 
366, 373, 

Writing  certainly  appears  to  have  been  in  use  in  China  at  a  very  early 
period.  The  books  possessed  by  the  Chinese,  and  by  them  accounted 
sacred,  are  certainly  very  ancient,  although  it  can,  (I  think,)  be  easily 
shown,  that  the  oldest  of  them  all  are  considerably  posterior  to  the  ear- 
lier Jewish  records.  China  furnishes  no  monuments  to  corroborate  the 
claim  to  antiquity  for  their  written  books.  Among  the  Chinese  there  was 
also  at  a  very  early  period  a  kind  of  printing  in  use. 

Besides  other  inventions  which  may  fairly  be  ascribed  to  the  Chinese, 

6# 


130         THE   BIBLE   IS   A  REVELATION   FROM   GOD. 

sacred,  do,  in  the  wise  precepts  they  embody,  give  proof 
of  the  lingering  remains  of  patriarchal  tradition,  even 
among  this  singular  people.  And  we  find,  in  fact,  that 
among  the  earliest  colonies  sent  forth  from  among  the 
descendants  of  Noah,  the  posterity  of  Joktan  spread 
towards  the  East,  (Gen.  x.  29,  30.) 

But  notwithstanding  all  the  advantages  yielded  her  in 
her  early  civilization,  China  has  remained  stationary  for 
ages.  She  had  no  written  revelation  from  God.  But 
the  once  rude  hordes  of  Europe,  stimulated  by  the  high 
truths  which  the  Bible  in  their  possession  has  diffused 
among  them,  have  gradually  advanced  in  knowledge,  in 
civilization,  in  all  that  can  elevate  man,  until  a  mere 
handful  of  Bible-taught  Europeans,  with  their  energy 
and  their  warlike  skill,  have  shown  themselves  more 
than  a  match  for  China,  and  have  even  compelled  the 
celestial  empire  to  come  to  terms. 

But  the  exception  apparently  the  most  complete,  is  fur- 
nished by  the  kingdom  of  the  Pharaohs,  the  monumental 
records  of  which  carry  us  back  to  an  almost  fabulous  an- 
tiquity.    Thus  M.  Ampere  states,  as  the  result  of  Egyp- 

there  is  a  chemical  preparation,  greatly  resembling  gunpowder,  if  it  was 
not  the  thing  itself.  It  is  what  by  some  other  ancient  writers  is  men- 
tioned as  "  the  Grecian  fire,^^  and  which,  as  we  learn  from  the  Byzantine 
writers,  was  brought  to  Constantinople,  a.d.  670,  from  Heliopolis,  in  Egypt, 
by  Callimachus.  Heliopolis  was  then  in  possession  of  an  Arab  race ;  and 
it  is  argued  with  great  plausibility,  that  the  Arabs  had  acquired  from  the 
Chinese  the  knowledge  of  this  preparation,  which  they  introduced  into 
Egypt.  For  among  the  Chinese  have  been  found  also  very  ancient  traces 
of  detonating  arms,  by  them  most  expressively  named  poo.  Indeed,  the 
celebrated  Remusat  has  found  proof  of  the  existence  among  the  Chinese 
of  ancient  implements  or  arms  resembling  cannon, 

(See  No.  VI.  Mon.  J.  Ampere's  "  Recherches  en  Egypte  et  Nubie,"  in 
"RevuedesDeuxMondes,"pp.  410,  411.    May,  1847.    Paris.) 


THE  BIBLE  IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD.         181 

tian  researches  up  to  Dec.  1847,  (and  chiefly  those  of  the 
Baron  Lepsius,)  monumental  records  running  back  so  far 
as  2500  years  hefore  Abraham^  i.  e.  to  B.C.  4300,  (^.  e.  296 
years  before  the  date  of  Adam's  creation,  as  calculated  by 
Usher ;)  and  these  records  come  down  as  low  as  to  a.d. 
250,  covering  a  period,  altogether,  of  4550  years.  (See 
Kevue  des  Deux  Mondes.     Dec.  1847,  p.  1035.) 

Now,  though  we  unhesitatingly  deny  this  extreme  an- 
tiquity, and  think  we  can  positively  disprove  it^  yet  these 
Egyptian  monuments  do  unquestionably  present  to  our 
astonished  view,  ample  indication  of  high  civilization  at 
a  very  remote  period ;  of  a  knowledge  of  the  fine  arts, 
and,  in  justice  we  must  add,  of  a  system  of  ethics  purer, 
more  humane  and  more  becoming,  than  can  be  found  in 
any  other  nation  on  earth,  unenlightened  by  the  records 
of  revealed  truth.  But  it  should  also  be  observed,  this 
high  moral  tone  is  characteristic  chiefly  of  the  earlier  ages 
of  the  Pharaohs.  As  you  ascend  towards  the  era  of  the 
patriarchs,  you  find  clearer  proofs  of  a  high  moral  senti- 
ment. There  is  obvious  indication  of  deterioration  as 
you  descend  the  stream  of  time.*  This  lends  confirma- 
tion to  the  idea,  that  all  there  was  of  truth  and  of  moral 
worth,  embodied  in  the  Egyptian's  sacred  lore,  had  been 
derived  straight  from  the  patriarchs,  and  probably  from 
Noah  himself  As  time  rolled  on,  corruption  crept  into 
the  system,  and  fable  was  superadded  to  tradition,  until, 
even  in  the  time  of  Moses,  the  creed  of  Egypt  was  but  a 
chain  of  myths,  strangely  connected  with  a  moral  code 
still  vastly  superior  to  that  of  any  other  myth-loving 
people  of  antiquity. 

The  Pharaoh  contemporary  with  Abraham,  evidently 

*  See  the  last  Lecture  in  this  work  under  the  head,  Early  Civilization. 


132         THE  BIBLE  IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD. 

had  some  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  and  revered  his 
authority. 

In  the  time  of  Joseph,  the  great-grandson  of  Abraham, 
Egypt  seems  to  have  risen  to  much  higher  power ;  yet 
her  Pharaoh  still  respected  the  worshipers  of  Jehovah. 
But  in  the  time  of  Moses,  everything  was  changed.  It 
would  seem  that  a  new  dynasty  must,  by  that  time,  have 
seized  upon  the  throne.  State  policy  predominated 
over  religious  scruples,  and  the  superstitions  of  the  Nile 
reigned  over  the  entire  valley,  fertilized  by  its  singular 
waters.*    But  whatever  light  derived  from  patriarchal 

'*'  How  strange  these  superstitions,  how  characteristic  of  the  country, 
and  totally  unlike  those  of  any  other  nations. 

Thus  at  one  time,  obstinate  and  bloody  warfare  was  maintained  be- 
tween the  inhabitants  of  Ombos,  who  worshipped  the  crocodile,  and  the 
people  of  Denderah,  (where  was  found  the  celebrated  Zodiac,  which  oc- 
casioned so  much  controversy  in  Europe,  about  thirty  years  since,)  who 
abhorred  the  crocodile.  (See  Amptire,  in  Rev.  des  Deux  Mondes,  April, 
1848,  p.  77.)  Another  distinctive  characteristic  of  Egyptian  superstition 
was,  that  the  souls  of  deceased  persons  were  believed  to  be  absorbed  in,  or 
identified  with,  Osiris,  one  of  their  chief  deities,  and  the  supreme  judge 
of  the  dead :  and  in  the  funeral  rites,  the  dead  is  often  called  Osiris. 
(Rev.  des  Deux  Mondes,  January,  1819,  p.  103.)  Hence  it  was,  that 
worship  was  paid  to  the  dead  by  their  descendants.  Thus,  on  the  monu- 
ments at  Gournah,  Ramses  I.  is  represented  as  worishipped  by  his  giand- 
8on.    (Id.  Dec.  1847,  p.  1022.) 

At  Elithyia,  in  Upper  Egypt,  Amenophis  III.,  (the  same  who  is,  by  the 
Greeks,  confounded  with  Memnon,  represented  by  the  twofold  Colossus, 
on  the  plains  of  Thebes,)  is  represented  as  offering  religious  homage  to 
his  father,  as  one  among  the  gods.     (Id.  April,  1848,  p.  71) 

Tlie  monuments  at  Silsilis  exhibit  similar  representations  of  persons 
worshiping  their  deceased  ancestors,  (p.  76.)  In  the  magnificent  temple, 
formed  by  excavations  in  the  rocks  at  Derr,  in  Nubia,  Ramses  the  Great 
(B.C.  2278)  is  represented  as  one  among  the  gods.     (Id.  Jan.  1849,  p.  95.) 

In  this  temple,  and  even  in  the  sanctuary  itself,  Ramses  is  one,  in  a 
group  of  four  gods,  the  other  three  being  Pthah,  Amoiuij  and  Phre ;  and 


THE   BIBLE   IS  A   REVELATION   FROM   GOD.  133 

tradition  may  have  still  lingered,  feebly  glimmering 
among  the  nations  of  antiquity,  it  seems  to  have,  long 
since,  become  extinct  over  almost  the  entire  world  of 
mankind. 

what  is  still  stranger,  the  name  and  sign  of  Ramses  are  appended  to  the 
side,  both  of  the  figure  that  offers  the  worship,  and  of  the  figures  to 
whom  it  is  offered.  In  other  words,  King  Ramses  is  here  depicted, 
offering  worship  to  the  effigy  of  himself 

In  the  still  more  magnificent  temple  at  Ipsamboul,  higher  up  the  Nile, 
in  Nubia,  a  similar  representation  is  given,  on  a  scale  of  colossal  gran- 
deur, of  Ramses  adoring  himself,  in  the  second  hall  of  the  great  temple, 
to  the  left  of  the  entrance.     (Id.  p.  105.) 

Nay,  as  if  to  cap  the  climax  of  absurdities,  and  show  how  utterly  blind- 
ed men  may  be  by  superstition,  in  some  of  the  inscriptions  in  the  royal 
tombs,  the  kings  alone  are  addressed  in  worship.  Sometimes  the  kings 
are  represented  as  receiving  the  prayers  of  men,  and,  as  intercessors,  pre- 
senting them  to  the  gods ;  like  the  saints,  whose  intercession  with  heaven, 
is  implored  in  the  Catholic  churches.  And  sometimes,  even,  it  is  the  gods, 
who  are  represented  on  the  monuments  of  Egypt,  as  themselves  offering 
worship  to  the  Pharaohs.     (Id.  p.  106.) 

Another  striking  instance  of  this  self-worship  by  the  Pharaohs,  is  pre- 
sented in  the  hieroglyphics  covering  a  large  stone  table  connected  with 
the  great  stone  Sphynx  near  the  pyramids  of  Gizeh.  This  tablet  has 
been  nearly  covered  with  sand  ;  but  on  the  part  yet  exposed,  is  read  the 
name  Thoulmosis  IV.  behind  the  king  who  is  presenting  worship,  and  it 
is  read  also  behind  the  Sphynx ;  that  is  to  say,  the  king  adored :  for  the 
Sphynx  was  a  symbol  of  the  king.  (See  Vyse  on  the  Pyramids,  vol.  iii. 
Plate  8,  and  p.  114.) 

M.  Cavaglia  dug  away  the  sand  before  the  great  Sphynx  ;  and  he  thus 
brought  to  light  a  small  temple  between  the  huge  paws  of  the  Sphynx, 
and  on  a  stone  tablet  of  this  temple  is  recorded  in  hieroglyphics,  a  more 
recent  name,  that  of  Sesostris,  doing  homage  to  the  Sphynx,  which  is  here 
named  Horus,  identified  with  the  sun,  an  emblem  of  royalty.  (Id.  Nov., 
1846,  p.  685,  See  Vyse,  on  Pyr.,  vol.  iii,  p.  115.)  Nay,  to  show  that  there 
can  be  no  mistake  in  the  matter,  several  of  the  monuments  exhibit  the 
names  of  priests,  consecrated  to  the  service  of  these  Pharaohs,  as  to  gods. 

In  possession  of  Clot,  Bey,  a  French  physician  in  the  service  of  the 
Pasha,  M.  Ampere  saw  a  sarcophagus,  on  which  is  read  the  name  Me.ncs, 


134         THE  BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD. 

Certain  it  is  that  now^  all  nations  on  the  globe  that  are 
destitute  of  the  Bible,  are  ignorant  of  the  true  God,  are 
debased  by  superstitions,  often  of  the  most  revolting 
character,  and  exhibit  a  depravation  of  morals,  startling, 
and  positively  appalling.  iVbr,  to  Hiis  assertion  does  either 
India  or  China^  at  this  day,  fuimish  exceptions.  Wher- 
ever the  Bible  has  been  introduced  by  Christian  mission- 
aries, it  has  become,  even  among  the  rudest  tribes,  the 
precursor  of  improved  morals, — of  marriage, — of  the 
elevation  of  woman  to  something  like  her  proper  posi- 
tion,— of  domestic  purity  and  peace, — of  agriculture, — of 
advancing  civilization,  and  even  of  literature.    It  does 

the  earliest  Egyptian  king.  The  person  whose  mummy  once  occupied 
this  sarcophagus,  was  a  priest,  devoted  to  the  service  of  several  of  the 
gods,  whose  names  are  read  in  the  inscriptions.  These  gods,  as  enumera- 
ted on  the  sarcophagus  are,  Thot,  Phtah,  Osiris  and  Menes,  The  man 
was  a  priest  of  Menes.  (Id.  March,  1847,  p.  903.)  Several  similar  instan- 
ces are  found,  of  the  names  of  priests,  devoted  to  the  service  of  cer- 
tain gods,  amongst  which  the  name  of  a  Pharaoh  stands,  as  one  of 
the  gods.  So  also,  the  Upper  Nile  was  worshipped  as  a  god,  and  as 
such  it  had  priests  devoted  to  its  service.  Thus  at  Syout,  the  present 
capital  of  Upper  Egypt,  anciently  called  Lycopolis,  a  large  and  magnifi- 
cent sepulchre  has  been  explored.  It  was  the  tomb  of  "  a  priest  of  the 
Upper  Nile !"  The  Upper  Nile,  then,  was  honored  as  a  god,  and  as  such 
it  had  priests  specially  consecrated  to  its  service.  (See  Rev,  des  Deux 
Mondes,  July,  1847,  p.  225.) 

We  may  form  some  idea  of  the  extent  and  magnificence  of  the  tombs  of 
Egypt,  from  this  one  fact,  stated  by  M.  Ampere.  (Rev.  des  Deux  Mondes, 
Dec.  1849,  pp.  10-31.)  The  tomb  of  a  priest,  named  Petemenof,  dug  in  the 
rock  of  the  mountain  near  Assassif,  exhibits  three  tiers  of  apartments,  or 
three  stories.  It  is  more  extensive  than  that  of  any  of  their  kings,  and  is 
covered  with  hieroglyphics  and  with  sculpture  of  the  most  beautiful  execu- 
tion. These  sculptures  and  hieroglyphics,  which  cover  the  walls  of  the 
galleries  and  of  the  chambers,  are  spread  over  a  surface,  estimated  by  Sir 
J.  G.  Wilkinson  to  be  upwards  of  20,000  square  feet,  or  nearly  an  acre  and 
a  quarter ! 


THE  BIBLE  IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD.         135 

away  with  cannibalism,  with  human  sacrifices,  and  with 
infanticide.  It  has  already  saved  from  extinction  tribes 
of  men,  which,  by  the  cruel  practices  of  heathenism, 
were  fast  dying  out.  Of  these  effects  of  the  Bible,  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  'New  Zealand,  and  sundry  other 
island  groups  of  Oceanica,  are  illustrations. 

Surely,  then,  these  happy  and  elevating  influences 
flowing  from  the  Bible,  wherever  it  is  made  known,  well 
and  nobly  comport  with  its  high  claim  to  a  divine  origin, 
and  lend  confirmation  to  the  other  and  varied  evidences 
that  the  Bible  is  from  God  / 

For,  8th  and  lastly.  The  progress  of  time,  while  it  may 
weaken  some  of  the  evidences  for  the  truth  of  the  Bible, 
strengthens  other  evidences,  and  constantly  furnishes  new 
proofs/  The  evidence  furnished  by  miracles,  though 
more  than  all  others,  convincing  to  the  original  witness- 
es, and  to  their  immediate  successors,  must  necessarily 
lose  somewhat  of  its  force,  the  further  we  are  removed 
by  time,  from  the  actual  witnesses  of  them.  Were  mir- 
acles the  only  source  of  evidence  for  the  truth  of  the 
Bible,  the  force  of  that  evidence  might,  in  time,  die  out, 
if  no  fresh  miracles  were  wrought  at  intervals  to  strength- 
en and  renew  that  evidence.  But  miracles  constitute 
one  only,  among  many  sources  of  evidence  for  the  truth 
of  the  Bible.  Its  sublime  doctrines,  its  pure  morality, 
its  reasonable  precepts,  its  adaptedness  to  the  character 
and  the  circumstances  of  man,  everywhere  and  at  all 
times ;  and  its  benign  influence  upon  the  individual  and 
upon  the  community  that  receive  it,  furnish  additional, 
forcible,  and  sometimes  conclusive  evidence.  But  we 
have  also  what  the  apostle  calls,  "a  more  sure  word  of 
prophecy, ^^  whereunto  we  shall  do  well  if  we  take  heed. 


136         THE   BIBLE   IS  A   REVELATION   FROM   GOD. 

Prophecy  must,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  be  often  ob- 
scure when  delivered;  and  it  may  remain  unintelligible 
until,  from  its  unexpected  fulfilment,  bursts  a  flood  of 
light  that  shows  at  once  the  truth  of  the  prophecy,  and 
the  inspiration  of  the  book  containing  it. 

The  intimations  concerning  the  manner  of  his  death, 
that  were  occasionally  given  by  Christ  in  his  discourses, 
were  utterly  mysterious,  even  to  his  disciples,  until  they 
beheld  the  very  person  of  their  Master,  whom  they  had 
seen  dying  on  the  cross,  and  then  buried,  a  bloody  corpse, 
in  the  tomb  of  Joseph,  now  again  alive  among  them. 
Then  all  became  plain.  The  predictions  delivered  by 
Christ,  respecting  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  must, 
when  they  heard  their  Master  utter  them,  have  been  in- 
comprehensible to  the  apostles.  But  those  of  them  who 
survived  that  great  national  catastrophe,  must  have  had 
their  faith  in  the  prescience  of  Jesus,  and  their  faith  in 
the  divine  warrant  on  which  they  themselves,  as  preach- 
ers of  his  gospel,  were  acting,  greatly  strengthened  by  the 
terrible  scenes  they  witnessed,  so  minutely  verifying  the 
Saviour's  prophecy.     Says  one  : 

"  If  a  transmitted  revelation  contain  within  its  pages 
a  prophecy  of  events,  dark  and  unintelligible  of  itself,  and 
therefore  unfit  to  cause  its  own  fulfilment ;  and  if,  from 
time  to  time,  facts  occur,  explaining  instantly,  by  no  cir- 
cuitous or  lengthened  process,  but  clearly  and  explicitly, 
the  mystic  words ;  if  the  explanation  of  that  which  till 
then  was  dark  and  mysterious,  even  to  the  learned  and 
reflecting,  flashes  with  spontaneous  conviction  on  the 
minds  of  multitudes,  who  now  discover  for  the  first  time 
the  events  to  have  been  clearly  predicted  ;  then,  a  reve- 
lation, however  faint  from  the  lapse  of  time,  revives  with 


THE  BIBLE  IS  A  KEVELATION  FROM  GOD.  137 

renewed  energy,  and  claims  its  reception  with  a  force 
almost  equal  to  that  which  it  demanded  from  those  to 
whom  it  was  originally  delivered."  (Mr.  Babbage,  9th 
Bridgw.  Treat,  ch.  xi.  pp.  133,  134.) 

Such  sudden  flashing  of  conviction  seems  to  have  been 
felt  by  the  3,000  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when,  under 
the  address  of  Peter,  they  perceived  that  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth was  their  own  Messiah,  whose  death  and  resurrec- 
tion they  now  discerned  had  been  predicted  by  the  royal 
prophet  David ;  while,  in  the  miraculous  gift  of  tongues 
possessed  by  the  disciples  before  them,  they  beheld  the 
shedding  forth  of  God's  Spirit,  as  predicted  by  Joel, 
(Joel  ii.  28,  29.)  So  also  the  present  aspect  of  the  sites 
of  ancient  Sidon  and  Tyre — the  recovered  monuments 
of  Nineveh — the  desolate  state  of  Babylon,  and  of  the 
rock-built  cities  of  Idumsea — the  entire  past  history  and 
the  present  condition  of  the  Jews — nay,  the  very  monu- 
ments of  Egypt,  (whatever  their  ultimate  influence  may 
be  upon  the  mere  question  of  chronology,)  are  all  so  cor- 
roborative of  the  writings  of  the  Jewish  prophets,  that  a 
careful  collation  of  the  one  with  the  other  is  continually 
flashing  fresh  and  stronger  conviction  on  the  minds  of 
many,  and  is  every  year  brightening  the  evidence  for 
the  truth  of  the  sacred  oracles. 

The  results  of  learned  research  among  the  long-hidden 
records  of  the  East,  furnish  also,  every  now  and  then, 
curious  coincidences  with  the  statements  given  in  the  old 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  well  calculated  to  strengthen  our 
confidence  in  the  perfect  truth  of  every  part  of  the  Bible. 

Thus  the  annals,  both  of  India  and  of  China,  speak  of 
a  terrific  and  utterly  destructive  flood,  in  times  of  remote 
antiquity  ;  and  the  Hindoo  account  is  almost  an  echo  of 


138         THE  BIBLE  IS  A  KEVELATION  FROM  GOD. 

the  narrative  of  Moses.  In  the  early  Chinese  annals 
mention  is  made  also  of  a  terrible  famine  over  the  whole 
land,  that  lasted  for  seven  years,  from  B.C.  1766  to  B.C. 
1759.  This  is  said  to  have  occurred  in  the  reign  of  one 
of  their  emperors,  (Tahin-than,  B.C.  1760,)  who  must  have 
been  contemporary  with  Joseph,  viceroy  of  Egypt.* 

*  The  account  of  the  Flood,  as  presented  in  the  Chinese  annals,  seems 
to  describe  a  local  inundation,  though  one  vastly  extensive  and  destructive. 
In  reading  this  account,  one  can  hardly  fail  to  believe,  that  the  story  is 
based  upon  some  indefinite  traditional  rumor  of  the  great  Noachian 
deluge.  This  record  stands  in  the  book  called  Chou-King,  under  the 
reign  of  the  Emperor  Yao,  b.c.  2300.  The  historian  says :  "  Immense 
waves  rolled  over  the  mountains  and  covered  the  hills.  These  formi- 
dable masses  of  water  increased  more  and  more,  and  threatened  to  sub- 
merge the  very  heavens."  {Chine,  par  G.  Pauthier,  pp.  12,  13.)  Mons. 
Pauthier  contends  that  this  is  the  description  of  a  local  inundation  only, 
given  in  the  exaggerated  style  of  the  East.  Several  inundations  are 
spoken  of  in  these  old  Chinese  writings.  (See  also  Du  Ilalde's  China, 
vol,  i.  p.  283.)  The  seven  years'  famine  in  China,  from  b.c.  1766  to  1759, 
under  the  Emperor  Tahin-thSn,  is  mentioned  by  Pauthier,  pp.  65,  66, 
and  also  by  Du  Halde,  vol.  i.  p.  299.    London,  1736. 

From  the  monuments  of  Egypt,  also,  incidental  confirmation  of  the 
accuracy  of  the  Jewish  history  is  gathered.  For  instance :  At  Kamak,  in 
Upper  Egypt,  Champollion  discovered,  on  the  south  wall  of  the  grand 
hall  of  the  temple,  among  the  paintings,  a  representation  of  the  Egyptian 
Pharaoh  Sesoneh,  dragging  to  the  feet  of  the  gods  a  great  number  of 
human  figures.  Of  these,  each  one  bears  on  his  breast,  written,  the  name 
of  the  people  and  of  the  country  of  which  he  is  a  representative.  Among 
them  appears  very  distinctly,  written  on  the  breast  of  one  of  the  fig- 
ures, Jaudh  Malk,  or  Melekh,  with  the  sign  beneath  it  denoting  foreign 
land.  These  are  two  Hebrew  words.  King  of  Judah,  written  in  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics ;  just  as  we  write  foreign  words  in  English  characters— the 
pachalic  of  Damascus :  the  Inca  of  Peru.  Now  we  read  (1  Kings  xiv.  26, 
26 ;  2  Chron  xii.  3-9)  that  Shishak,  King  of  Egypt,  took  Jerusalem,  and 
carried  off  the  treasury  of  King  Rehoboam, 

So  that  here,  an  event  about  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  before  Christ, 
is  recorded  in  the  book  of  Kmgs,  and  we  find  it  corroborated  by  the 


THE   BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION  FROM  GOD.         139 

But  there  is  yet  one  other  point  of  view  in  which  the 
progress  of  time  sheds  light  upon  the  Bible,  and  furnishes 
additional  evidence  of  its  divine  origin.  I  refer  to  the 
effect  of  the  advancement  of  science.  Many  have  sup- 
posed that  improvements  in  science  tend  to  invalidate  the 
authority  of  the  Bible  :  but  it  is  not  so.  Various  objec- 
tions that  once  seemed  formidable,  advancing  science  has 
shown  to  be  groundless.  We  may,  then,  safely  conclude, 
that  the  new  difficulties  which  are  now  and  then  raised 

Egyptian  monuments;  and  the  name  of  this  king  of  Egypt  is  found 
in  its  proper  place,  on  the  lists  of  Manetho,  (Ampere,  Rev.  des  Deux 
Mondes.    Dec.  1847,  pp.  1010,  1011.) 

The  very  portrait  of  Rehohoam,  or  what  is  presumed  to  be  his  por- 
trait, is  found  delineated  on  this  wall  at  Karnak,  (Champollion  Figeac,  pi. 
76.  Champollion,  Monumens,  &c.  Plates,  vol.  iii.  Plate  305,  fig.  3. 
See  Wilkinson,  vol  i.  p.  137.) 

Again,  observes  Mons.  Ampere,  (Rev.  May,  1847,  p.  414,)  when  notic- 
ing the  name  of  Potipherah,  priest  of  On,  or  Heliopolis,  whose  daughter 
Joseph  espoused :  "  The  names  of  men,  of  women,  of  places,  mentioned  in 
the  book  of  Genesis,  where  the  story  relates  to  Egypt,  abundantly  show 
the  veracity  of  the  old  Hebrew  chronicler ;  for  all  these  names  are  of 
Coptic  origin ;  their  meaning  is  found  in  the  Coptic  language,  which 
shows,  at  the  same  time  also,  that  Coptic  was  really  the  language  of  an- 
cient Egypt. 

"  Thus  Phraha,  of  which  we  have  made  the  name  Pharaoh,  means  in 
Coptic,  or  Egyptian,  the  sun.  This  is  the  title  which  the  kings  of  Egypt 
take  in  the  hieroglyphic  legends,  where  they  are  always  assimilated  to 
Horus.  See  the  tablet  between  the  paws  of  the  great  Sphynx.  See 
Vyse,  plate  8  of  vol.  iii.    Vol.  iii.  p.  115. 

*'  The  name  of  honor  conferred  upon  Joseph,  Zophnath-paaneah,  (Gen. 
xli.  45,)  or  Psonte-phanech,  is  not  Hebrew,  but  Coptic,  and  its  meaning  is 
found  only  in  that  language. 

'*  The  same  is  true  of  the  name  Moses.  Hebrew  has  no  name  like  it ; 
no  words  explaining  its  derivation  ;  but  Mocha,  or  rather  Mo-skeh,  in  Cop- 
tic signifies,  issued  from  the  loalers.  And  surely,  the  child  drawn  by 
Pharaoh's  daughter  from  the  Nile,  ought  to  bear  an  Egyptian,  and  not  a 
Hebrew  name." 


140  THE   BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION  FROM   GOD. 

by  modern  science,  in  its  various  departments,  will,  when 
the  bounds  of  human  knowledge  are  yet  more  widely 
extended,  be  shown  to  be  equally  baseless.  Had  the 
sacred  writers  expressed  themselves  in  terms  strictly 
comporting  with  the  present  state  of  knowledge,  their 
averments  must,  on  many  points,  have  been  for  ages 
unintelligible  even  to  the  learned,  and  apparently  even 
false ;  and  many  forms  of  expression,  adapted  to  the 
present  state  of  knowledge,  would  no  doubt,  to  our  more 
enlightened  successors,  a  few  generations  hence,  appear 
fully  as  erroneous  as  do  now  those  passages  most  strenu- 
ously objected  to  at  present.  As  it  is,  truth  is,  in  the 
Bible,  expressed  in  terms  adapted  to  popular  apprehen- 
sion :  and  the  proper  use  of  extending  science  is,  to  en- 
able us  to  understand  more  accurately  the  real  meaning 
of  the  sacred  record.  No  one  now  objects  to  such  ex- 
pressions as  those  respecting  the  rising  and  setting  of 
the  sun,  employed  in  adaptation  to  popular  usage. 

And  when  it  is  recollected,  that  the  sacred  writers 
could,  of  themselves,  have  viewed  things,  and  spoken  of 
them,  only  in  accordance  to  the  notions  prevailing  in  the 
age  and  the  country  in  which  they  lived,  it  is  certainly 
amazing,  it  is  another  indication  that  their  minds  were 
controlled  and  directed  by  the  unerring  mind^  that  they 
have  so  expressed  themselves,  (as  e.  g.  Moses  in  the  ac- 
count he  has  given,  in  Genesis,  chapter  i.,  of  the  creation,) 
as  that  while,  from  the  very  first,  the  main  facts  were  all 
intelligible  to  any  reader,  yet,  the  more  widely  the 
bounds  of  human  knowledge  are  extended,  the  scriptural 
statements  become,  not  obscure,  unintelligible,  and  con- 
fused, but  only  the  plainer,  the  more  beautifully  con- 
sistent and  intelligible.     The  discoveries  of  geologists, 


THE  BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION   FROM   GOD.         141 

which  warrant  the  idea  that  this  earth  may  have  been  in 
existence,  and  been  subjected  to  several  successive  con- 
vulsions, that  may  have  occupied  a  period  stretching 
through  thousands,  nay  even  millions  of  years,  before 
man  existed  at  all,  must,  it  was  at  first  supposed,  bear 
with  their  entire  weight,  against  the  Mosaic  account  of 
creation. 

A  closer  examination  of  the  Mosaic  record  shows, 
these  fears  are  groundless ;  and  leaves  us  only  to  admire 
the  evidence  of  supernatural  wisdom  guiding  the  writer's 
pen,  in  the  manner  in  which  the  book  of  Genesis  opens. 
The  first  and  second  verses  of  Genesis  must  certainly 
have  been  inspired ;  for  no  mere  human  sagacity  could 
have  so  framed  the  statement,  as  that  from  the  first,  it 
should  be  intelligible  as  to  the  facts,  that  Jehovah  is  the 
creator  of  all  things,  and  that  the  earth  subsisted  in  other 
forms  than  the  present,  ere  man  appeared  upon  it ;  while 
yet,  it  clearly  admits  of  an  interval  between  the  first  pro- 
duction of  this  globe,  and  the  creation  of  man  upon  it, 
long  as  the  vast  cycles  which  geological  science  may  de- 
mand for  the  formation  of  all  the  several  strata,  with  their 
numerous  succession  of  vegetable  and  of  animal  deposits. 

True,  there  are  difficulties  yet  remaining.  But  the 
lessons  of  the  past  must  be  lost  upon  us,  ere  we  sufier 
our  faith  in  the  sacred  records  to  falter.  Time  has  al- 
ready cleared  up  many  difficulties,  once  as  formidable  as 
these  now  appear. 

We  have,  then,  but  to  wait  patiently,  and  time,  and 
the  researches  of  the  learned,  will  eventually  clear  up 
the  most  perplexing  of  those  difficulties  yet  in  our  way, 
and  pour  fresh  light  upon  the  sacred  oracles,  rendering 
plain  what  is  now  obscure,  and  placing  the  authority  of 


142  THE   BIBLE   IS  A  REVELATION"  FROM   GOD. 

the  Bible,  as  a  revelation  from  God,  on  broader,  firmer 
ground  than  ever. 

Revelation,  whicli  is  necessarily  obscure,  in  some  points, 
from  the  first,  and  which  moreover  loses  continually 
somewhat  of  its  force  from  long  transmission,  does  yet  con- 
tain within  itself  the  means  of  its  own  verification ;  so 
that  extending  science  and  advancing  knowledge  among  men, 
render  its  meaning  but  the  plainer,  and  thus  throws 
upon  it,  and  around  it,  a  light,  the  evidence  of  its  truth, 
that  shall  become  but  the  stronger  and  the  clearer,  with 
the  lapse  of  ages.  Thus  has  it  been  with  the  Bible  hith- 
erto, and  thus  it  will  be,  doubtless,  in  all  time  to  come. 

The  fulfilment  of  prophecy^  the  researches  of  the  learned^ 
and  the  extension  of  human  knowledge,  are  continually  pro- 
claiming, ALL  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of 
God! 

The  Bible  is  made  up  of  documents  of  a  very  great  anti- 
quity ;  it  claims  to  be  insinred;  it  betrays  nothing  at  all  incon- 
sistent with  this  high  claim,  for  there  is  in  it,  nothing  puerile, 
weak,  or  unbecoming ;  it  is,  in  every  point,  worthy  of  the 
origin  it  claims;  it  is  attested  by  many  astonishing  miracles  ; 
it  is  supported  by  various  and  wonderful  prophecies  already 
fulfilled,  and  by  others  which  are  heing  fulfilled  before  our 
very  eyes  ;  its  divine  origin  is  witnessed  also  by  its  admi- 
rable influence  in  promoting  civilization,  humanity,  and  re- 
finement among  men ;  and  even  time  itself,  though  it 
may  seem  to  impair  the  lustre  of  its  evidence  in  some 
points,  does,  in  fact,  yield  a  constantly  increasing  confirma- 
tion of  its  truth,  and  elucidation  of  its  worth,  as  THE  VERY 
VOICE  OF  God. 

Conclusion.  The  one  great  lesson  we  hence  learn  is, 
"  Holdfast  to  the  truth,^"*  be  steadfast,  be  not  carried  about 


THE  BIBLE  IS  A  KEVELATION  FROM  GOD.         143 

by  every  wind  of  doctrine.  Let  not  your  faith  in  this 
blessed  book  be  shaken,  by  the  plausible  objections 
which  every  sciolist  can  start. 

The  Bible  is  from  '  God.  It  is  the  one  sole  light  that 
Aeaven  has  vouchsafed  to  illumine  our  path  to  life's 
close.     Amen. 


LECTURE   IV. 

THE  PENTATEUCH  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES,  GENUINE 
AND  AUTHENTIC. 

The  Pentateuch  is  a  designation  familiarly  applied  to 
the  first  five  books  of  the  Bible,  viz.  Genesis,  Exodus, 
Leviticus,  Numbers,  and  Deuteronomy.  The  authority 
of  the  Pentateuch,  as  the  work  of  Moses,  and  written  by 
inspiration  of  God,  has  been  held  by  the  Christian  church 
in  all  ages,  and  by  the  whole  people  of  the  Jews. 

Such  is  the  subject  matter  of  these  books,  their  close 
connection  one  with  another,  and  with  all  the  other  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  the  New,  that  they  consti- 
tute an  appropriate  and  necessary  introduction  to  all  the 
rest  of  the  Bible.  Without  the  Pentateuch,  the  other 
books  of  Scripture  would  be  unintelligible ;  for  the  Scrip- 
tures abound  with  assertions  and  allusions  to  events, 
which  are  recorded  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  nowhere 
else ;  and  without  the  Pentateuch  these  allusions  would 
be  wholly  incomprehensible.  Keep  this  fact  in  mind, 
and  then  consider  the  frequency  with  which,  in  nearly 
every  part  of  the  Bible,  "  the  hook  ofilie  law,"  "  the  law  of 
Moses,^^  and  similar  phrases  are  found,  indicative  of  the 
highest  respect;  consider  also,  the  importance  attached 
by  the  Jews  to  the  promises  of  God  made  to  them  as  a 


THE  PENTATEUCH.  145 

nation,  promises  found  recorded  only  in  the  Pentateucli ; 
and  then  call  to  mind,  also,  the  frequency  with  which,  in 
the  New  Testament,  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  inspired  apos- 
tles after  him,  refer  to  events  recorded  only  in  the  Pen- 
tateuch, quote  sentiments  and  doctrines  as  taught  in  the 
laio  of  Moses ^  and  which  are  found  only  in  the  Pentateuch. 
Kemember,  moreover,  how  frequently  they  reason  from 
data,  such  as  laws  and  precepts  laid  down  in  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  nowhere  else;  and  surely  all  this  furnishes 
ample  ground  for  the  earnestness  with  which  the  friends 
of  revelation  have  always  contended  for  the  divine  origin 
of  these  five  books,  as  the  work  of  Moses  and  divinely 
inspired,  and  as  the  very  foundation  on  which  rests  the 
whole  structure  of  revealed  truth ;  and  for  the  jealous 
solicitude  with  which  the  friends  of  the  Bible,  as  the  ora- 
cles of  God,  have  ever  guarded  these  venerable  records 
from  assaults  designed  to  overthrow  their  authority ! 

But  we  find  it  confidently  asserted,  "  The  Pentateuch 
has  not  reached  us  in  an  authentic  form :"  again,  ''  There 
is  no  evidence  whatever  that  in  the  time  of  Moses  there 
existed  anywhere,  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  an  alphabet  by 
which  such  a  work  as  the  Pentateuch  could  have  been 
written  and  transmitted  to  posterity."  "  If  the  five  books 
of  the  Pentateuch  really  had  the  origin  which  popular 
opinion  has  attributed  to  them,  some  mention  of  them 
would  have  been  made  in  the  Old  or  New  Testaments  : 
but  they  are  both  silent  on  the  subject.  They  frequently 
speak  of  the  laiu  of  Moses,  but  nowhere  name  the  books 
of  the  Pentateuch." 

Again.  *'  At  what  time  the  old  Hebrew  alphabet  was 
formed,  is  not  known ;  but  it  is  of  later  date  than  the 
Phoenician,  from  which  it  is  derived."     Again :  "  The 

7 


146  THE  PENTATEUCH 

best  authorities  assure  us,  that  the  Samaritan  square  let- 
ters, in  which  the  Pentateuch  first  appears  in  history, 
were  invented  many  centuries  after  Moses,  and  were 
probably  adopted  about  the  time  of  the  captivity." 
Again,  it  has  been  said,  "We  have  no  history  of  the 
Hebrew  text  by  which  it  can  be  traced  beyond  the  Baby- 
lonish captivity,  one  thousand  years  nearly,  after  the 
epoch  of  Moses." 

These  are  bold  assertions  certainly :  that  they  are  in 
reality  baseless,  will  be  shown.  But  the  confidence  with 
which  these  assertions  are  made,  and  the  industrious  ac- 
tivity with  which  they  are  disseminated  in  every  part  of 
our  land,  render  it  necessary  to  examine  their  force,  and 
to  vindicate  anew  the  authenticity  of  the  five  books  of 
Moses. 

As  to  the  art  of  writing,  and  the  origin  of  written 
characters  in  which  to  express  the  various  ideas  presented 
to  us  in  the  books  of  Moses  as  they  now  exist ;  this  is  a 
matter  not  quite  free- from  difficulty,  certainly,  and  here- 
after I  propose  to  discuss  it  more  fully.  At  present  it  may 
be  sufficient  to  observe,  that  were  it  shown  beyond  dis- 
pute, that^neither  the  Chinese,  nor  the  Egyptians,  nor  any 
other  pagaift; 'nation,  in  those  remote  ages,  were  in  posses- 
sion of  what  might  with  strict  propriety  be  called  an 
alphabet ;  but  that  they  then  wrote  their  records  in  sym- 
bolic signs,  representing  sounds  or  syllables,  and  some- 
times distinct  ideas ;  this  would  not  prove  that  the  He- 
brews had  no  such  alphabet.  Because  certain  nations  had 
no  suitable  alphabetical  characters  in  which  to  write  such 
a  record  as  the  Pentateuch,  it  surely  does  not  follow  that 
no  other  people  had  such  characters.  If  the  Pentateuch 
can  be  actually  traced  back  to  the  time  of  Moses,  (as  we 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  147 

think  it  certainly  can,)  then  there  was  at  that  time  some 
mode  of  writing,  suitable  to  be  employed  in  the  perform- 
ance of  such  a  work.  If  these  characters  did  not  exist 
before  the  time  of  Moses,  then  Moses  must  himself  have 
invented  them,  or  they  must  have  been  divinely  taught 
to  Moses.  The  fact  that  Moses  is  the  author  of  the  Penta- 
teuch being  once  established,  is  itself  full  proof  that,  in 
the  time  of  Moses,  there  did  exist  a  suitable  set  of  char- 
acters in  which  to  write  this  great  work.* 

The  origin  of  those  written  characters,  whether  by  the 
invention  of  Moses,  or  otherwise,  is  a  separate  and  dis- 
tinct question. 

Suppose,  now,  it  were  proved  beyond  contradiction, 
that  the  characters  in  which  was  written  the  very  oldest 
copy  of  the  Pentateuch  known  in  history,  were  invented 
many  ages  after  the  death  of  Moses, — that  proved  fact 
would  not  in  the  least  invalidate  the  evidence  for  the 
authorship  of  Moses,  as  the  writer  of  the  Pentateuch. 
Because  it  is  very  plain  that  the  copying  out  of  an  old 
document  in  new  and  more  convenient  characters,  is  nei- 
ther incredible  nor  unheard  of  The  great  work  of  the 
Baron  Lepsius  on  Egyptian  chronology,  and  the  work  of 
the  learned  Dr.  L.  Ideler,  entitled,  Handbook  of  Chro- 

*  On  this,  subject  Lepsius  has  thus  expressed  himself:  "  No  one,  now 
at  least,  in  combating  the  old  view  that  the  inscriptions  (on  the  rocks  of 
Sinai,)  are  traceable  to  the  Israelites,  would  make  use  of  the  argument 
that  the  Israelites  did  not  possess  at  that  time  a  complete  system  of  writ- 
ten characters,  which  was  in  frequent  use.  From  the  then  state  of  things 
in  Egypt,  as  we  are  now  acquainted  with  them,  and  of  which  the  Jews 
must  have  been  cognizant  in  the  fertile  province  of  Goshen,  it  is  wholly 
incredible  that  they  did  not  possess  a  running  hand  as  well  as  the  Egj^p- 
tians ;  however  improbable  it  may  be  that,  as  has  been  supposed,  they 
borrowed  it  in  any  degree  from  the  hieratic  character  of  the  Egyptians." 
(See  Lepsius'  Tour  from  Thebes  to  Sinai,  pp.  88,  89.) 


148  THE  PENTATEUCH 

nology,  both  printed  at  Berlin,  are  both  written  in  the 
German  language,  and  yet  they  are  both  printed  in  the 
Roman  characters  in  use  with  us,  and  not  in  the  old 
G-erman  letters.  Suppose,  further,  that  an  edition  of  all 
the  works  of  Luther  should  be  now  printed  in  Roman 
letters,  as  more  convenient  than  the  usual  German  type, 
this  republication  of  an  old  work  in  new  characters,  not 
in  use  at  the  place  and  the  time  when  Luther  lived,  can- 
not in  the  least  diminish  the  weight  of  the  evidence 
which  goes  to  show  that  Luther  wrote  these  books.  So, 
if  proved  that  the  characters  in  which  the  very  oldest 
copies  of  the  Pentateuch  may  have  been  written  were  in- 
vented centuries  after  the  death  of  Moses,  that  would 
not  touch  the  question  of  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  that 
work.  Ezra  may,  after  the  captivity,  have  revised,  cor- 
rected and  transcribed  in  more  convenient,  and  more 
generally  intelligible  characters,  for  publication,  the  five 
books  of  Moses,  and  the  other  sacred  books  of  his  nation 
that  had  been  written  and  published  many  centuries  be- 
fore his  time.  It  is  even  possible  that  the  Pentateuch 
may  have  been  originally  written  in  an  improved  hiero- 
glyphic character ;  and  copied  out  in  strictly  alphabetic 
characters,  only  in  the  time  of  Ezra. 

The  authority  of  Professor  Norton,  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, is  given  for  the  assertion  that  the  evidence  is 
sufficient  to  render  it  probable^  that  the  Pentateuch  was  in 
existence  about  a  century  after  the  return  of  the  Jews 
from  their  captivity,  which  was  the  year  B.C.  536. 

We  are  also  very  confidently  told  that  most  of  the 
German  and  other  continental  writers  in  Europe,  regard 
the  first  nine  or  ten  chapters  of  Genesis,  as  made  up  of 
vague  data,  draivn  from  the  mythical  traditions  of  Asia  and 


GENUINE   AND  AUTHENTIC.  149 

Egypt  This  last  position  is  examined  in  detail  in  the 
Lecture  on  the  Authority  of  Genesis,  in  this  work. 

Certain  it  is  that  De  Wette,  Strauss,  and  the  other 
modern  German  rationalists  and  mythists,  deny  the 
Mosaic  origin  of  the  Pentateuch,  especially  of  Genesis ; 
and  utterly  scout  the  idea  of  its  inspiration,  as  we  under- 
stand that  term. 

The  position  is  openly  assumed,  broadly  stated,  and 
confidently  relied  on  by  these  learned  writers,  and  it  is 
perseveringly  employed  in  all  their  criticisms  and  reason- 
ings, on  the  teachings  of  these  sacred  books, — that  "  a 
miracle  is  impossible,^^  and  that,  therefore,  a  record  contain- 
ing the  account  of  a  miracle,  is,  so  far,  not  historical, — it 
is  a  myth,  a  fable  that  has  grown  up  and  gained  a  place 
in  popular  tradition  in  the  lapse  of  many  ages  ;  and  that, 
therefore,  "the  Pentateuch,  which  abounds  in  narratives 
of  such  wonders,  could  not  have  been  written  hy  Moses,  nor 
by  any  person  contemporaneous  with,  or  very  soon  fol- 
lowing Moses ;  it  must  have  been  the  production  of  a 
period  later  by  many  ages,  than  any  actor  amid  the 
scenes  so  described." 

Now  this  fundamental  axiom  of  these  German  critics, 
viz. :  that  a  miracle  is  impossible,  is  a  mere  assertion,  and 
the  reasoning  founded  upon  it  is  weak,  as  the  assertion  is 
bold.  It  looks  so  much  like  begging  the  whole  question 
at  issue,  that  the  wonder  is  how  any  sensible  man  could 
commit  himself  to  such  reasoning.  If  there  be  a  God, 
then  a  miracle  is  not  impossible:  because  the  power 
which  established  the  laws  of  nature,  is  competent  to 
alter,  to  destroy,  or  to  suspend  those  laws.  Whether 
miracles  have  actually  occurred,  is  altogether  a  different 
question. 


150  THE   PENTATEUCH 

If  man  be  immortal,  lie  needs  direction  from  an  unerr- 
ing source  to  aid  him  in  his  efforts  to  render  that  immor- 
tality a  happy  one.  Such  unerring  source  of  wisdom  is 
God  alone.  The  necessities  of  man  do,  then,  demand  a 
revelation  from  his  Maker ;  and  a  revelation,  that  it  may 
gain  credence,  and  accomplish  its  proper  en^,  must  be 
authenticated  in  such  manner,  as  shall  render  its  divine 
origin  clear  and  unquestionable. 

Miracles  famish  the  very  kind  of  authentication 
needed,  and  the  best,  perhaps  the  only  mode  of  authen- 
tication practicable,  because  they  bespeak  the  direct  in- 
tervention of  the  God  of  nature,  the  God  that  made  us, 
and  to  whom  we  must  account. 

It  is  moreover  obvious,  that  the  miracles  recorded  in 
the  Pentateuch  are  of  such  a  nature,  and  are  so  connected 
with  the  history  given,  and  with  the  laws  promulgated 
therein,  that  the  history  itself  stands  or  falls  with  the 
miracles ;  and  these  miracles  constitute  one  of  the  strong- 
est proofs  that  Moses,  and  Moses  alone,  must  have  been 
the  writer  of  these  books. 

It  is  certainly  the  received  opinion  throughout  Christen- 
dom, and  it  now  is,  and  it  always  has  been  the  opinion 
of  the  great  body  of  theologians  in  all  countries,  that  the 
Pentateuch,  substantially  as  we  now  have  it,  is  the  work 
of  Moses,  the  inspired  lawgiver  of  the  Jews.  This 
opinion  has  been  maintained  by  such  men  as  Eichhorn, 
Michaelis,  Eckermann,  Rosenmiiller,  Tholuck,  Neander, 
&c.,  in  continental  Europe: — by  such  as  Lightfoot,  Still- 
ingfleet,  Prideaux,  Graves,  Butler,  Faber,  Home,  and  a 
host  of  others  among  British  writers  ;  and  in  this  coun- 
try, by  Professor  Stuart,  and  nearly  every  theologian  of 
note. 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  151 

Moreover,  it  is  a  well-known  and  significant  fact,  tliat 
of  those  who  once  questioned  the  genuineness  of  these 
books,  or  of  some  part  of  them,  not  a  few  there  are,  who, 
after  a  laborious  and  careful  investigation  of  the  whole 
field  of  inquiry,  have  openly  avowed  their  conviction 
that  the  Pentateuch  is,  substantially,  the  work  of  Moses. 
Such  was  the  case  with  the  celebrated  Le  Clerc,  and  to 
some  extent,  also,  with  Nachtigal,  and  Eichard  Simon. 

The  learned  Hasse,  (see  Eosenmiiller,  Proleg.  Pentat. 
pp.  10,  11,)  once  denied  utterly  the  Mosaic  origin  of  the 
Pentateuch,  attributing  it,  (as  some  now  do,)  to  the  age 
of  the  closing  exile  ;  but  long  afterwards,  he  altered  his 
opinion  and  declared,  "7^  cannot  he  denied  that  the  purity 
of  language^  the  eloquence  of  style,  and  the  poetic  imagery  dis- 
coverable in  Genesis,  betray  the  hand  of  Moses,  and  that  the 
age  of  David,  {i.  e.  the  writings  produced  in  the  age  of 
David,)  presupposes  the  existence  of  the  Mosaic  luritings.^^ 

The  learned  Michaelis,  whose  name  is,  of  itself,  in  a 
question  of  this  nature,  equivalent  to  a  host,  thus  writes, 
"  That  Moses  is  the  author  of  the  five  books  usually  called  his, 
is  the  common  opinion  of  Christians  and  Jews  ;  and  I  regard 
it,  not  only  as  perfectly  correct,  hut  as  certain  as  anything 
luhich  can  be  known,  respecting  the  composition  of  any  ancient 
hookr 

Another  accomplished  German  scholar,  in  a  treatise 
on  the  mythical  interpretation  of  the  sacred  books,  pub- 
lished but  a  few  years  since,  asserts  that,  "  the  Pentateuch 
171  its  "present  form,  must  he  ascribed  to  Moses  alone." 

Even  the  distinguished  Hartmann,  who  is  far  enough 
from  what  we  should  deem  strict  orthodoxy  on  these 
points,  freely  admits  that  the  mythical  expounders  of 
the  sacred  books  have  by  no  means  made  good  their 


152  THE   PENTATEUCH 

position,  viz., 'that  the  Pentateuch  is  not  the  work  of 
Moses. 

It  is  also  well  worth  noting,  that  nearly  all  who  have 
impugned  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, had  previously  avowed  opinions  which  compel 
them,  for  consistency's  sake,  to  deny  the  authority  of 
these  books.  Thus  Vater,  De  Wette,  Strauss,  deny  the 
possibility  of  miracles,  and  deny  plenary  inspiration.  So, 
also,  in  this  country,  and  among  British  writers,  they  who 
deny  the  unity  of  the  human  races,  and  contend  for  a 
variety  of  distinct  original  races,  created  in  several  dis- 
tinct localities ;  they  also  who  yield  to  the  extravagant 
claims  for  a  high  antiquity  in  China,  India,  Egypt,  &c., 
dispute  the  genuineness  of  much  of  the  received  Hebrew 
text  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  deny  the  Mosaic  origin  of  at 
least  the  earlier  chapters  of  Genesis. 

Such  bias,  or  previous  commitment  is  obviously  un- 
favorable to  impartial  investigation,  nay  is  incompatible 
with  it. 

The  position  is,  then,  here  distinctly  assumed.  2he 
Pentateuch  is  a  genmiie  work  of  Moses  the  great  Jewish 
Lawgiver:  and  it  is  an  authentic  luork^  one  to  he  relied 
on,  because  Moses  was  a  prophet,  inspired  of  God  I 

If  it  was  the  work  of  Moses,  then  the  Pentateuch  must 
have  been  written  during  the  sojourn  of  Israel  in  the  wil- 
derness, i.  e.  in  the  interval  between  the  Exodus  from 
Egypt,  and  the  entrance  of  Israel  into  Canaan.  Yet  the 
book  of  Genesis  may,  not  improbably,  have  been  written 
before  the  Exodus. 

The  whole  argument  for  the  Mosaic  origin  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch, is  thus  beautifully  presented  by  Ern.  Fred.  Car. 
Kosenmiiller,  in  one  brief  sentence.     "  Pentatemhum  Most 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  153 

auciori  trihuit  omnis  Hebraica  et  Christiania  antiquitas^ 
rotionihus  quce  vel  ex  ipso  ductce  sunt  opere^  vel  aliis  idoneis 
testimoniis  nituntury  "  All  antiquity,  Christian  and  Jew-- 
ish,  assigns  the  Pentateuch  to  Moses  as  its  author,  for 
reasons  which  are  either  drawn  from  the  work  itself,  or 
which  rest  on  other  appropriate  (sufficient)  testimonies." 

Thus,  in  plain  terms  it  is  declared,  (Deut.  xxxi,  9-18 ; 
vers.  22,  24,  26)  this  whole  hooh^  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end,  was  written  by  Moses,  and  was  delivered  to  the  elders 
of  the  people  and  the  priests,  that  it  might  be  carefully 
preserved  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  tabernacle  near  the  ark 
of  the  covenant,  and  read  in  the  hearing  of  the  people,  on 
certain  solemn  festival  days.  In  various  parts  of  the 
work  itself,  also,  it  is  said,  at  one  time,  that  certain  laws, 
at  another,  that  the  narrative  of  certain  events  that  had 
occurred,  were,  by  Moses,  written  in  the  book.  So,  in 
Exod.  xvii.  14,  the  plots  and  the  doom  of  the  Amale- 
kites,  were,  in  obedience  to  divine  command,  written  by 
Moses  in  the  book.  Such  is  the  phraseology,  (the  article 
being  used,)  as  to  show  that  the  writer  speaks  of  some 
one  particular  and  well-known  book. 

Again,  in  Exod.  xxiv.  4-7,  after  the  promulgation 
of  the  moral  law,  the  decalogue,  we  read,  "  Moses  wrote 
all  the  words  of  Jehovah  in  the  booh  of  the  covenant^  which  he 
read  to  all  the  peopled' 

Other  prescriptions  afterwards  superadded  Moses  was 
again  directed  to  commit  to  writing.  (Exod.  xxxiv.  27.) 
Further,  Moses  is  said,  in  Numb,  xxxiii.  1-2,  to  have 
regulated  the  movements  of  Israel  in  their  journeyings,  by 
divine  command,  and  by  the  same  command,  to  have  re- 
corded these  movements.  The  book  of  Numbers  closes 
with  these  words.     "  These  are  the   commandments  and 

1* 


154  THE  PENTATEUCH 

jiLdgments  which  Jehovah  commanded  hy  the  hand  of  Moses 
unto  the  children  of  Israel^  in  the  plains  of  Moah^  near 
Jericho J^     (Numb,  xxxvi.  13.) 

In  Deuteronomy,  in  which  are  given  various  explana- 
tions of,  and  additions  to,  former  laws,  Moses  does,  in 
his  several  addresses  to  the  people,  speak  repeatedly  of 
"  this  law^''  and  *'  t]ie  hook  of  this  law^  (See  especially  the 
28th  chapter,  passim,  and  ver.  61.) 

From  all  this  it  is  plain,  that  the  writer  of  these  books 
claims  to  be  Moses,  and  asserts  that  Moses  himself  com- 
mitted to  writing  the  laws,  and  the  instructions  he  had  re- 
ceived from  Jehovah,  and  had  communicated  to  Israel ; 
and  also,  that  the  books,  or  rolls  containing  these  writ- 
ings, Moses  had  himself  delivered  to  the  people. 

Moreover,  in  very  many  places  in  the  other  and  later 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  mention  is  made  of  "  the 
law  /"  "  the  law  which  Jehovah  gave  to  Israel  hy  Moses^ 
Thus,  Joshua  was  admonished,  soon  after  the  death  of 
Moses,  to  "  ohserve  tJte  law  given  hy  Moses,^^  and  habitually 
to  "  read  in  the  hook  of  the  law  of  Moses. ^^     (Josh.  i.  7,  8.) 

So  also,  on  a  very  solemn  occasion,  Joshua  admonished 
the  leaders  of  Israel  (Josh,  xxiii  8-16,)  to  do  all  things 
which  were  ^^  written  in  the  hook  of  the  law  of  Moses^^'  (also 
ver.  6.) 

In  the  open  comitia,  or  great  assemblies  of  the  people, 
held  by  Joshua,  he  publicly  enumerated,  as  facts  well 
known  to  all,  the  chief  events  recorded  in  the  Pentateuch, 
detailing  them  in  order.  He  also  caused  the  people 
openly  to  renew  their  covenant  to  serve  Jehovah,  as 
their  God,  in  obedience  to  the  law  given  by  Moses,  and 
the  account  of  this  renewing  of  the  covenant,  he  wrote, 
and  added  it  to  the  hook  of  the  law  of  Qod,  (see  Josh.  xxiv. 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  155 

26;)  which  must  be,  beyond  a  doubt,  the  very  book 
which,  in  chap.  i.  7-8,  and  chap,  xxiii.  6,  and  viii.  32,  is 
spoken  of  as  ^'  the  book  of  the  law  of  Moses ,''  and  again  in 
Josh.  viii.  34,  as  "  the  hook  of  the  law^^  i.  e.  the  Pentateuch, 
David,  just  before  his  death,  exhorts  his  son  Solomon, 
(1  Kings  ii.  3,)  to  observe  all  the  precepts  "  written  in  the 
law  of  MosesP 

In  2  Kings  xiv.  6,  we  are  told  that  Amaziah,  king 
of  Judah,  put  to  death  the  murderers  of  his  father,  but 
spared  their  children,  as  it  is  written,  (^.  e.  enjoined,)  "m 
the  hook  of  the  law  of  Moses ^''  The  words  which  follow,  as 
expressing  this  injunction,  are  the  very  words  found  in 
Deut.  xxiv.  16.  In  2  Kings  xxii.  8,  we  read  of  the 
finding  in  the  temple,  by  Hilkiah,  the  high-priest,  of 
"  the  hook  of  the  law^^  which,  in  the  next  chapter,  (xxiii.  2,) 
is  called  "  the  hook  of  the  covenant^  In  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  14, 
(which  contains  another  account  of  this  finding  of  the 
book  of  the  law  in  the  temple  by  Hilkiah,)  the  book  so 
found  is  called  yet  more  distinctly  "  the  hook  of  the  law 
written  hy  Moses  ;"  and  from  this  book  so  found,  Shaphan, 
the  royal  scribe,  read  before  Josiah,  the  king,  '''promises 
and  threatening s^^^  which  could  hardly  have  been  any 
other  than  those  found  recorded  in  Levit.  xxvi.  3-45,  and 
Deut.  xxvii.  11  to  the  68th  ver.  of  chap,  xxviii.,  as  will 
appear  from  a  comparison  of  2  Kings  xxiii.  20-23,  since 
Josiah  directed  the  passover  to  be  observed  with  all  the 
solemnities,  and  all  the  rites,  which  were  prescribed  "  in 
the  hook  of  the  covenantj^  found  by  Hilkiah ;  and  then  it  is 
said  in  2  Kings  xxiii.  25,  that  no  king  arose  equal  to 
Josiah,  who  turned  to  Jehovah  with  his  whole  hearty  accord- 
ing TO  ALL  THE  LAW  OF  MosES.  From  all  this  the  infer- 
ence is  inevitable,  the  book  of  the  covenant  found  by 


156  THE   PENTATEUCH 

Hilkiah  was  the  Pentateuch^  tlie  sacred  writings  which  in 
Joshua,  in  the  first  book  of  Kings,  and  in  the  other  Jew- 
ish Scriptures  down  to  the  time  of  Josiah,  were  so  often 
mentioned  as  "  the  law  of  Moses^^^  *'  tlie  hook  of  the  law,'''' 
"  the  hook  of  the  covenant  which  Jehovah  gave  hy  Moses." 

Hence  it  is  plain  that  there  is  no  ground  for  the  posi- 
tion assumed  by  certain  opposers  of  the  Mosaic  origin 
of  the  Pentateuch,  who  tell  us  that  when  in  the  Jewish 
histories  before  the  captivity,  we  find  such  phrases  as 
"the  law,"  "the  law  of  Moses,"  &c.,  it  was  an  oral  law 
merely,  a  traditionary  history,  and  traditionary  precepts 
alone,  to  which  allusion  was  made ;  a  series  of  prescrip- 
tions for  the  mode  of  Jewish  worship,  and  for  the  regu- 
lation of  manners,  handed  down  by  tradition,  and  not 
written,  unless  we  except  some  detached  fragments,  such 
as,  possibly,  the  (lecahgue,  the  lists  of  names,  or  genealo- 
gies, and  perhaps,  also,  a  bare  outline  of  the  journeys, 
and  the  stoppings,  or  encampments  of  Israel  in  the  wil- 
derness. Perhaps,  (they  add,)  these  detached  written 
fragments,  and  these  traditionary  laws,  had  been  collected 
together  and  arranged  in  order,  and  committed  to  writing 
by  Hilkiah,  in  the  document  which  he  presented  to  King 
Josiah,  under  the  plausible  pretext  that  it  was  found  by 
him  in  the  temple. 

These  authors,  ever  fertile  in  conjecture,  would  have 
us  believe  that  this  book,  originating  in  reality  with  Hil- 
kiah, though  published  as  the  work  of  Moses,  was  after- 
wards revised,  improved  and  enlarged  by  Ezra,  who 
finally  issued  it  in  the  form  in  which  we  now  have  it. 
But  this  theory  is  wholly  untenable.  Apply  in  this  case 
the  axiom  laid  down  by  the  celebrated  De  Wette  as  a 
canon  of  criticism,  and  by  which  the  rationalistic  inter- 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  157 

pretation  is  refuted.  "  The  only  means  of  acquaintance 
with  a  history^  is  the  narrative  we  possess  concerning  it ;  and 
beyond  that  narrative  the  interpreter^  or  the  commentator^  or 
the  critic^  cannot  go  /" 

Of  what  Hilkiah  did  in  this  case,  we  know  absolutely 
nothing  but  what  the  narrative  in  2  Kings  and  2  Chron. 
tells  us. 

What  authority  has  any  one  to  say  that  Hilkiah  forged 
a  document,  a  new  compilation  of  old  fragments  of  his- 
tory, and  of  the  current  traditions  and  popular  legends 
respecting  Israel  and  the  rites  of  Levitical  worshij),  and 
that  he  then  palmed  this  forgery  on  Josiah  as  an  ancient 
document,  the  work  of  Moses,  and  found  by  Hilkiah  in 
the  temple  ?  This  notion  is  a  mere  figment,  a  groundless 
fancy,  an  unsupported  assumption,  resorted  to  in  order  to 
avoid  the  necessity  of  attributing  to  Moses  himself,  as  its 
author,  the  Pentateuch  as  we  now  have  it. 

The  Jewish  record  says  that  Hilkiah/?wnc?  in  the  temple 
''^  the  hook  of  the  covenant  of  Jehovah^  We  must  either 
receive  this  account  just  as  it  is  given,  or  reject  it  alto- 
gether. If  we  reject  the  narrative,  we  know  nothing  at 
all  about  this  book  of  the  covenant  produced  by  Hilkiah; 
and  in  that  case,  and  then,  of  course,  the  objection 
against  the  existence  of  the  Pentateuch  as  a  written  doc- 
ument before  the  time  of  Josiah,  and  that  against  its 
Mosaic  origin,  which  is  founded  upon  this  narrative  of 
the  finding  of  the  hook  of  the  covenant  in  the  temple  by 
Hilkiah,  and  its  being  presented  by  him  to  the  king  as  a 
document  before  unknown  to  the  Jewish  monarch  and 
to  his  court,  fall    at  once  to  the  ground. 

The  language  in  which,  long  before  Hiikiah's  time, 
*'  the  law  of  Moses^^  is  alluded  to,  in  the  Jewish  sacred 


158  THE   PENTATEUCH 

books,  shows  clearly  it  was  a  written^  not  an  oral  law,  that 
is  there  intended:  for  it  is  again  and  again  called  ^^  the 
book  of  the  law,^'  or  ^^  the  book  of  the  covenant  which  Jehovah 
gave  to  Israel  by  the  hand  of  Moses J^  Now  these  allusions 
are  found  in  passages  taken  from  nearly  every  part  of 
the  whole  Pentateuch,  as  the  quotations  already  herein 
given  may  serve  to  show. 

This  theory  that  Hilkiah  palmed  off  upon  the  king 
a  forgery  of  his  own — a  mere  compilation  of  historical 
fragments  and  traditionary  legends — as  a  genuine  work 
of  Moses,  is  improbable  in  the  extreme !  It  rests  on  one 
or  the  other  of  two  suppositions.  Either,  1st.  That  be- 
fore Josiah's  time  there  was  no  written  document  known 
as  the  law  of  Moses — this  we  have  seen  to  be  contrary  to 
the  fact,  as  distinctly  stated  in  Joshua  and  1st  book  of 
Kings :  or,  2d.  That  in  consequence  of  the  impiety  pre- 
vailing during  several  of  the  preceding  reigns,  those  of 
Ahaz,  Manasseh,  and  Amon,  the  law  had  fallen  into  neg- 
lect ;  and  that  every  copy  of  the  law  had  been  lost,  until 
this  document  was  produced  by  Hilkiah :  nay,  that  even 
this  must  have  been  a  mere  fragment,  (probably  chapters 
xxvii.  xxviii.  xxix.  and  xxx.  of  Deuteronomy,  contain- 
ing the  account  of  the  renewing  of  the  covenant  on  the 
plains  of  Moab.  Compare  2  Kings  xxii.  8,  9,  11,  16,  17, 
and  ch.  xxiii. ;  also  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  14,  &c.,)  and  that 
this  fragment  he  used  as  the  groundwork  for  the  compi- 
lation he  prepared  and  presented  to  the  King. 

But  this  supposition  is  entirely  gratuitous ;  it  is  in 
contradiction  of  the  narrative.  Moreover,  it  is  utterly 
incredible  that  every  copy  of  the  law  of  Moses  should 
have  been  lost.  "Whatever  the  impiety  of  the  Jewish 
monarch  and  his  court,  there  must  always  have  been 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  159 

found  some  persons  among  sucli  a  people  as  the  Jews, 
and  particularly  in  tlie  corps  of  the  priesthood,  and 
among  those  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  (a  tribe  entirely  de- 
voted to  the  duties  of  religion  and  to  the  Mosaic  ritual,) 
possessed  of  sufficient  reverence  for  the  God  of  their 
fathers,  and  for  the  institutions  of  their  national  faith, 
to  preserve  with  care  the  records  of  that  faith  by  them 
at  the  time  possessed,  and  by  them  deemed  authentic  and 
even  sacred.  That  in  such  a  nation  such  documents 
should  be  unknown,  even  at  the  court,  however  idolatrous 
and  dissipated  that  court  might  be,  is  very  improbable  ; 
but  that  every  copy  in  the  whole  nation  should  have 
been  lost,  is  utterly  incredible. 

But  suppose  that  even  this  strange  and  improbable 
circumstance  had  occurred,  viz.,  that  every  other  copy 
of  the  law  in  the  whole  nation  had  been  lost,  it  surely 
could  not  have  been  very  difficult  for  Josiah,  witli  the 
aid  of  distinguished  scribes,  such  as  Shaphan,  and  the 
more  intelligent  and  studious  among  the  members  of 
the  sacerdotal  order,  to  determine  the  character  of  the 
document  produced  by  Hilkiah,  by  an  examination  of  its 
contents — a  comparison  of  its  prescriptions  with  the  re- 
ceived traditions,  and  the  established  forms  of  worship 
— and  especially  from  a  comparison  of  its  contents  with 
the  numerous  passages  in  the  book  of  Joshua,  and  the 
other  authentic  records  of  their  national  history  in  which 
allusions  to,  and  quotations  from  "  the  hook  of  the  law  of 
Moses''  occur  :  unless,  indeed,  the  advocates  of  the  theory 
of  Hilkiah's  forgery,  will  show  also  that  Hilkiah  altered 
and  interpolated  all  the  sacred  records  of  his  nation,  from 
the  time  of  Joshua  to  that  of  Josiah,  in  order  to  sustain 


160  THE  PENTATEUCH 

and  give  plausibility  to  his  forgery — a  task  that  must 
certainly  be  hopeless. 

The  authenticity  of  the  document  produced  by  Hil- 
kiah  could  have  been  readily  ascertained  at  the  time, 
and  a  forgery  such  as  is  now  ascribed  to  him,  would  have 
been  totally  impracticable. 

Nor  must  it  be  here  forgotten,  that  the  Pentateuch 
was  the  statute-book  of  the  land  of  Israel.  It  was  the 
fountain  of  law,  the  rule  of  justice,  the  reference  for  the 
settlement  of  all  disputed  rights  and  conflicting  claims 
in  all  the  courts  of  justice  throughout  the  whole  terri- 
tory occupied  by  the  nation,  and  by  its  every  tribe.  In 
such  circumstances,  the  supposition  of  the  complete  loss 
of  every  copy  of  the  law  of  Moses  involves  a  monstrous 
absurdity.  Besides,  it  is  certain  that  copies  of  the  law 
were  not  unknown  to  Josiah,  and  to  his  immediate  pred- 
ecessors. Manasseh,  his  grandfather,  after  a  career  of 
great  wickedness,  (see  2  Kings  xxi.  1,  16,  and  2  Chron. 
xxxiii.  1,11,) repented,  and  turned  and  served  zealously 
the  God  of  his  fathers,  (2  Chron.  xxiii.  11, 19.)  This,  as 
a  Jewish  monarch,  implies  his  careful  compliance  with 
fhe  precepts  given  in  the  Pentateuch.  (See  2  Chron. 
xxiii.  16.) 

Moreover,  this  finding  of  " the  hook  of  tlie  covenant"  by 
Hilkiah,  occurred  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  the  reign  of 
Josiah.  (2  Kings  xxii.  3,  comp.  ver.  8.)  But  from  his 
very  accession  to  the  throne,  while  yet  a  mere  child,  Jo- 
siah honored  Jehovah,  the  God  of  his  fathers,  and  copied 
the  example  of  his  illustrious  ancestor  David,  engaging 
heartily  in  the  effort  to  restore  the  worship  of  God  in  its 
purity.  (See  2  Kings  xxii.  2,  6.)  But  this  he  could  not 
have  done  without  consulting  ^Uhe  law  of  the  Lord"  i.  e. 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  161 

the  Pentateuch,  the  books  of  Moses  so  often  referred  to 
in  the  annals  of  his  nation,  and  in  the  devotional  songs 
composed  by  his  royal  ancestors  David  and  Solomon, 
and  which  were  chaunted  daily  in  the  temple  service. 
In  these  annals  and  sacred  songs,  the  Pentateuch  was 
repeatedly  designated  as  "  the  laiv  of  Jehovah  given  by 
Mosesy  That  sacred  document  it  was,  a  copy  of  which 
was,  by  divine  command,  laid  up  in  the  sanctuary  of  Je- 
hovah, close  by  (perhaps  in)  the  ark  of  the  covenant. 
(See  Deut.  xxxi.  9,  and  especially  vers.  25,  26.)  In  addi- 
tion to  all  this,  this  venerable  document  was,  once  every 
seven  years,  to  be  read  at  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  in  the 
hearing  of  all  Israel.  (Deut.  xxxi.  9 ;  10. 11.) 

From  all  this  it  follows,  that  the  Pentateuch,  the  book 
of  the  law  given  by  Moses,  could  not  have  been  unknown 
to  Hilkiah,  nor  to  Josiah  or  his  court. 

The  whole  history  of  Josiah  supposes  the  existence  of 
this  work,  as  a  work  well  known,  publicly  acknowledged, 
and  revered  as  sacred  by  the  monarch,  and  by  his  whole 
court.  There  is,  therefore,  great  weight  in  the  suggestion 
made  by  some  among  the  learned,  that  "  the  hook  of  the 
lawj''  found  by  Hilkiah  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  was  the 
original  document^  the  very  copy  of  the  Pentateuch  deliv- 
ered by  Moses  to  the  Levites,  shortly  before  his  death, 
to  be  by  them  laid  up  in  the  side  of  the  arh^  a  perpetual 
memorial.  (Deut.  xxxi.  24-26.) 

The  finding  of  this  precious  document,  The  Auto- 
graph Pentateuch,  in  the  handwriting  of  Moses  himself 
— the  venerable  proi^het^  the  revered  lawgiver  of  their  nation, 
the  founder  of  their  faith^  may  well  be  supposed  to  have 
produced  no  ordinary  sensation  at  the  Jewish  court. 
Occurring  as  it  did,  also,  at  a  time  when  the  pious  mon- 


162  THE  PENTATEUCH 

arch  was  busily  intent  on  effecting  an.  entire  reformation 
in  the  nation,  and  a  complete  restoration  of  the  ancient 
worship  in  its  original  purity,  and  while  that  reformation 
was  still  incomplete,  it  would  naturally  awaken  a  deep 
interest,  and  call  forth  a  more  diligent  search  into  the 
real  provisions  of  the  holy  law,  as  detailed  in  this  inesti- 
mable document  I 

All  this  will  well  account  for  the  redoubled  zeal  man- 
ifested by  the  monarch,  to  ascertain  wherein  his  reforma- 
tion, yet  in  progress,  was  defective,  and  to  insure  its  full 
completion,  guided  by  the  prescriptions  laid  down  in  this 
ancient,  this  authentic  document,  which  had  sp  long  lain 
unconsulted  in  its  sacred  and  almost  forgotten  repository. 
From  the  time  of  Joshua,  the  immediate  successor  of  Mo- 
ses, down  to  the  reign  of  Josiah,  the  very  time  when,  on 
such  a  subject,  most  obscurity  might  be  expected,  we 
meet,  in  the  Jewish  scriptures,  with  mention  made  of 
"  the  laiv  of  Moses"  "  the  laiu  of  the  Lord,"  "  the  book  of  the 
law"  &c.  In  connection  with  these  expressions  we  also 
find  reference  to  circumstances,  to  doctrines,  precepts, 
denunciations,  and  to  rites  and  observauQes,  as  mentioned 
in  that  law,  and  which  we  can  identify  with  passages  in 
the  Pentateuch  as  we  now  have  it. 

From  Joshua  to  Hilkiah,  (about  B.C.  624,)  this  ancient 
document  had  been  mentioned  and  referred  to,  and 
quoted  from,  in  all  the  sacred  books  of  the  nation,  the 
public  and  authentic  registry  of  their  history. 

Nay,  the  great  business  of  the  reign  of  this  very  mon- 
arch, Josiah,  had  been  to  re-establish  the  rites  and  ob- 
servances prescribed  in  this  great  work,  the  Pentateuch. 

The  book  found  by  Hilkiah  in  the  temple  could  not 
have  been  the  decalogue  alone,  as  some  have  contended. 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  163 

It  was  not  merely  the  27th  and  28th  chapters  of  Deute- 
ronomy, containing  the  curses,  as  others  have  argued: 
but  it  must  have  been  a  complete  copy  of  the  entire  Pen- 
tateuch, as  has  been  shown  by  the  learned  Bertholdt^  who 
remarks :  ''  The  solemn  celebration  of  the  passover  by 
Josiah,  according  to  the  prescriptions  of  the  book  which 
Hilkiah  had  found,  proves  that  this  book  (so  found)  was 
not  Deuteronomy,  nor  any  smaller  subsequent  compila- 
tion, hut  the  whole  Pentateuch.  The  directions  respecting 
the  passover,  that  are  found  in  Deuteronomy  (see  chap, 
xvi.  1-8)  are  few  and  incomplete.  The  principal  laws 
concerning  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread,  which  Josiah 
must  have  had  before  him  when  he  gave  directions  for  the 
celebration  of  his  passover,  are  only  to  be  found  in 
Exod.  xii.  1-20,  and  Numb,  xxviii.  16-25."  But 
Numbers  and  Exodus  presuppose  the  existence  of  Gen- 
esis, which  is  introductory  to  them,  and  without  which 
they  are  incomplete,  and  to  a  great  extent,  unintelli- 
gible. 

Furthermore,  the  readiness  with  which  Josiah  and  his 
court  received  this  new-found  book  of  the  law,  the  rev- 
erence with  which  the  king  consulted  it,  and  the  zeal 
with  which  he  set  himself  to  obey  its  directions  for  regu- 
lating the  rites  and  observances  of  the  national  worship 
in  the  temple,  all  show  that  this  was  not  a  7iew  wor\  be- 
fore unknown  and  unheard  of,  as  De  Wette,  Norton,  and 
others  would  persuade  us.  An  anonymous  work,  of 
doubtful  origin,  and  previously  unknown,  men  are  not 
wont  to  receive  at  once,  as  authoritative  and  divine ;  and 
that  too,  even  to  their  own  condemnation ! 

But  if  it  was,  as  the  whole  history  seems  to  imply,  the 
venerable  autograph  copy  of  the  Pentateuch,  from  the 


1<64"  THE  PENTATEUCH 

hand  of  Moses  himself,  which  had  been  lying,  for  ages, 
in  its  sacred  repository,  in  the  sides  of  the  ark ;  the  dis- 
covery of  this  document,  almost  forgotten,  perhaps,  but 
which,  when  once  brought  to  light,  could  easily  be  iden- 
tified in  that  age,  in  that  building,  (the  temple  at  Jerusa- 
lem, before  the  captivity,)  and  under  those  memorable 
circumstances,  would  necessarily  awaken  an  interest 
strong  and  abiding,  in  the  breast  of  Josiah,  and  through- 
out his  court,  and  thus  the  new  impulse  given  by  this 
discovery  to  the  monarch's  efforts,  already  previously 
commenced,  for  a  thorough  reformation  of  religion,  is 
quite  natural,  and  easily  understood.  The  language  em- 
ployed in  2  Chron.  xxxiv.  14,  in  relating  this  discovery, 
seems  to  favor  this  idea  of  an  autograph  document.  *'  Hil- 
Jciah^  the  priest,  found  a  book  of  the  law  of  the  Lord  hy  Moses^^^ 
where  the  word  urritien^  or  given^  by  Moses,  may  well  be 
supplied.  Certain  it  is,  however,  that  this  could  not 
have  been  the  first  appearance  of  the  Pentateuch. 

In  the  historical  hooks  of  the  Old  Testament,  subsequent 
to  the  captivity,  ample  evidence  is  furnished  that  the  Pen- 
tateuch was  in  existence  at  that  time,  and  that  it  was 
considered  as  the  work  of  Moses.  When  a  part  of  the 
Jews  had  returned  from  Babylon  to  Judea,  we  read, 
(Ezraiii.  2,)  thatJeshua,  the  priest,  and  Zerubbabel,  with 
their  kindred  and  retainers,  built  the  altar  of  "  The  Ood 
of  Israel^^^  to  offer  burnt-offerings  thereon,  ''''as  it  is  written 
in  the  law  of  Moses ^  the  man  of  God." 

Now  it  is  in  Leviticus,  chapter  vi.  and  vii.,  &c.,  that 
the  law  regulating  these  burnt-offerings  is  found. 

Again,  at  the  dedication  of  the  second  temple,  we  are 
told,  (Ezra  vi.  18,)  they  set  the  priests  in  their  divisions, 
and  the  Levites  in  their  courses,  for  the  service  of  God, 


GENUINE   AND  AUTHENTIC.  165 

which  is  at  Jerusalem,  "  05  it  is  W7'itten  in  the  booh  of 
MosesJ^ 

With  this  record  of  what  Ezra  did,  compare  the  direc- 
tions found  in  Numb.  iii.  6,  &c.,  and  chap.  viii.  6-28. 
Nehemiah  also,  in  the  opening  of  the  book  bearing  his 
name,  (see  ISTeh.  i.  7,  &c.  &c.,)  does,  in  prayer,  confess 
the  sins  of  Israel,  in  having  neglected  the  institutions 
given  by  Moses ;  and  then,  he  pleads,  on  behalf  of  the 
penitent  Jews,  the  promises  God  had  made  by  Moses, 
plainly  referring  to  Levit.  xxvi.  41.  Deut.  iv.  26.  27, 
28  ;  XXX.  1-5,  &c.     See  especially  Deut.  xxx.  3-6. 

These  quotations  bring  us  down  to  a  period  within 
about  four  centuries  and  a  half,  before  the  nativity  of 
Christ,  and  they  completely  establish  this  point :  that,  as 
in  the  time  of  Joshua,  and  Amaziah,  and  of  Josiah,  so 
now,  after  the  return  from  captivity,  there  were  extant 
among  the  Jews,  books  to  which,  as  authoritative  in 
the  case,  reference  was  made  constantly  and  publicly,  in 
all  that  related  to  the  national  worship  and  to  public 
law ;  books  from  which  were  quoted  promises  and 
threats,  as  from  Jehovah,  the  God  of  their  fathers.  It  is 
also  a  point  established,  that  these  boohs  tt;ere,  by  common 
consent,  through  all  this  long  course  of  time,  attributed  to 
Moses  J  the  inspired  legislator  and  prophet  of  the  nation,  as 
their  author. 

And  this  opinion,  be  it  remarked,  was  not  that  enter- 
tained by  a  few  distinguished  persons  only.  It  was  an 
opinion  general  throughout  the  nation ;  an  opinion  that 
had  been  handed  down  to  them  from  their  fathers, 
through  a  long  succession  of  ages. 

Great  weight  is  added  to  this  argument,  from  the  fact, 
that  through  all  this  long  course  of  time,  everything  re- 


166  THE   PENTATEUCH 

lating  to  tlie  civil  polity  and  to  the  religious  establish- 
ment of  the  Hebrews,  had  been  regulated,  even  from  the 
days  of  Joshua,  in  conformity  with  the  directions  given 
in  the  Pentateuch. 

Sometimes,  indeed,  these  sacred  books  had  not  been 
duly  consulted,  the  directions  therein  contained  had  been 
occasionally  neglected;  but,  after  a  time,  abuses  had  been 
reformed,  and  a  return  had  been  made  to  the  standard 
of  duty  laid  down  in  the  Pentateuch.  Hence  we  find 
that  in  the  historical  books  of  the  Jews,  those  leaders  of 
the  nation  who  conformed,  and  caused  the  people  to  con- 
form, to  the  laws  of  Moses,  as  given  in  the  Pentateuch, 
are  commended.  Those,  on  the  contrary,  who  disre- 
garded these  laws,  are  severely  censured.  Moreover,  the 
several  national  calamities  that  came  upon  them,  and  at 
one  time,  almost  to  their  extinction,  are  all  attributed,  in 
these  their  national  records,  to  the  displeasure  of  Je- 
hovah, in  punishment  of  their  neglect  of  these  very  laws 
contained  only  in  the  Pentateuch.  The  writings  of  their 
prophets  also,  abound  with  comminations  against  those 
who  should  be  guilty  of  neglecting,  and  with  assurances 
of  prosperity  to  those  who  should  cheerfully  obey,  the 
laws  of  Moses  as  given  in  the  Pentateuch. 

Yet  further  is  it  to  be  remarked,  that,  the  festivals 
spoken  of  and  the  religious  solemnities  recorded,  or  recom- 
mended, in  their  historical  books,  and  in  the  writings  of 
their  prophets,  are  all  such,  as  had  been  previously  in- 
stituted, and  for  which  ample  directions  are  furnished  in 
the  Pentatefoch. 

Moreover,  the  authentic  records  of  their  national  his- 
tory, the  devotional  compositions  of  their  sacred  bards, 
used  as  anthems  in  the  solemn  services  of  their  public 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  167 

worship,  especially  in  ttie  teraple,  and  the  writings  of 
their  prophets  also,  all  contain  frequent  allusions  to  the 
covenant  established  with  their  pious  ancestor,  Abraham, 
as  recorded  in  Genesis,  and  to  events  that  occurred  to 
their  ancestors  in  Egypt,  at  the  crossing  of  the  Eed  Sea, 
and  during  their  migrations  in  the  great  Arabian  desert, 
and  to  the  circumstances  that  attended  the  giving  of  the 
law,  especially  at  Mount  Sinai.  These  allusions  are  so 
numerous,  so  minutely  particular,  and  so  fully  agreeing 
with  the  accounts  given  in  Exodus,  and  the  following 
books  of  the  Pentateuch,  as  to  show  that  these  five  books, 
now  attributed  to  Moses,  and  very  much  as  we  now  have 
them,  must  have  been  extant,  well  known,  and  highly 
revered  as  sacred,  among  the  Jews,  during  the  whole 
period  of  their  national  existence,  from  the  time  of 
Joshua,  immediately  succeeding  Moses,  until  the  last  of 
their  acknowledged  prophets,  and  the  completion  of  even 
the  last  of  these  sacred  books  now  found  In  our  canon  of 
the  Old  Testament. 

This  point  might  be  largely  illustrated  by  quotations 
from  the  Psalms,  and  all  the  prophets  from  Isaiah  to 
Malachi.  As  a  specimen  only,  examine  the  following: 
Josh.  i.  7,  &c.,  and  compare  Psalm  i.  2  ;  Ixxxi.  3,  5,  10, 
11,  12 ;  Psalm  Ixvi.  5,  6,  7,  15 ;  Psalm  Ixxvii.  5,  7,  and 
11-20  ;  see  the  whole  Ixxviii.  Psalm ;  Psalm  Ixxx.  8  ;  Ps. 
xcix.  6,  7,  8 ;  ciii.  6,  7 ;  Psalm  cv.  entire ;  Psalm  cxiv. 
Bead  carefully  Psalm  cxix.  entire  ;  Ps.  Ixviii.  2-15 ;  Ps. 
Ixxxi.  4-8,  composed  about  the  time  of  David.  Bead  the 
whole  of  Psalm  cv.  composed  perhaps  in  the  time  of  Solo- 
mon ;  also  Psalm  Ixxviii.  1-55,  of  the  time,  probably,  of 
Eehoboam,  or  Adonijah.  See  also  Psalm  cvi.  composed 
about  the  time  of  the  captivity.     Compare  also  1  Chron. 


168  THE   PENTATEUCH 

xvi.  8-23;  xxii.  11,  13;  2  Kings  xvii.  13,  15,  19.  Pas- 
sages of  similar  character,  are,  in  the  prophets,  amost  in- 
numerable. 

The  passages  in  the  Pentateuch  referred  to  in  these 
Jater  books  of  the  Jewish  Scripture,  are  not  there  given 
literally ;  for  such  was  not  the  custom  of  the  age :  nor 
could  it  be  expected,  in  those  times,  when  copies  of  books 
were  very  scarce.  Among  the  Jews,  especially,  such 
literal  quotation  could  not  be  expected.  They  were  ac- 
customed to  hear  the  law  publicly  read,  at  their  solemn 
festivals.  The  impression  made  upon  them  would  be 
rather,  deep  as  to  the  facts,  than  minutely  accurate  as  to 
the  words :  and  this  would  be  the  case,  even  with  their 
prophets  and  their  kings,  who  must,  from  childhood, 
have  mingled  in  the  assemblies  of  the  people,  and  on 
whose  minds  the  impressions  of  early  childhood,  would, 
of  course,  be  the  deepest,  and  most  durable. 

With  this  remark  in  view  compare  Psalm  Ixviii.  1, 
with  Numb.  x.  36 ;  also  Psalm  xcv.  7,  8,  with  Numb, 
xiv.  22, 23  ;  compare  Exod.  xxxiv.  6,  7,  and  Numb.  xiv. 
18 :  with  Psalm  Ixxxvi.  15  ;  Psalm  ciii.  8 ;  Psalm  cxlv.  8  ; 
also  with  Joel  ii.  13,  and  Jonah  iv.  2.  Again,  compare 
Numb,  xxiii.  19,  with  1  Sam.  xv.  29. 

No  one,  who  will  examine  these  several  passages,  can 
doubt  that  the  writers  of  these  psalms,  of  1  Samuel,  of 
the  books  of  Joel,  and  Amos  and  Jonah,  do  refer  directly 
to  the  corresponding  places  in  Exodus,  in  Numbers,  and 
in  Leviticus,  respectively.  The  thought,  the  sentiment  is 
given,  and  almost  the  very  words. 

Take  a  few  more  examples,  and  compare  Hos.  ix.  10, 
with  Numb.  xxv.  3  ;  and  Hos.  xi.  8,  with  Gen.  xix.  24,  25. 

In  Joel  i.  9,  13,  complaint  is  made  that  the  meat- 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  169 

offerings  and  the'  drink-offerings  were  withheld  from  the 
priests  and  from  the  house  of  God.  But  the  law  prescrib- 
ing these  offerings  is  found  in  Levit.  2d  chap,  and  in 
chap.  vi.  14-23,  &c. 

Compare  also,  Amos  ii.  9,  with  Numb.  xxi.  20-30. 
Compare  Amos  iv.  10,  with  Exod.  iv.  3^  to  Exod.  xii. 
29-31.  Amos  iv.  11,  with  Gen.  xix.  24-26.  Compare 
Micah  vi.  5,  with  Numb.  xxii.  2,  and  to  xxv.  5. 

Compare  also  Micah  vi.  6,  with  Levit.  ix.  2,  3,  &c. 
Isaiah  (i.  11-14,)  enumerates  feasts  and  religious  rites, 
precisely  such  as  in  the  Pentateuch  are  instituted  and 
prescribed  with  great  minuteness,  in  several  places.  Com- 
pare also  Isaiah  xii.  2,  with  Exod.  xv.  2  ;  compare  IIos. 
iv.  13,  and  Deut.  xii.  2  ;  compare  also  Deut.  xix.  14, 
and  xxvii.  17,  concerning  the  land-mark,  with  Prov.  xxii. 
28,  and  Prov.  xxiii.  10. 

Compare  Hos.  vi.  3,  with  Deut.  xi.  14 ;  and  Hos.  ix. 
10,  with  Deut.  xxxii.  10 ;  also  Hos.  xiv.  3,  with  Exod. 
xxii.  22,  23,  and  with  Deut.  x.  18.  Compare  Amos  ii.  7, 
(profane  my  holy  name,)  with  Levit.  xx.  3 ;  also  Amos 
ii.  10,  and  v.  25  with  Deut.  xxix.  5 ;  Deut.  viii.  2.  Com- 
pare Amos  iii.  2,  and  Deut.  xiv.  2  ;  also  Amos  v.  11,  with 
Deut.  xxviii.  30. 

These  quotations  from  nearly  all  the  books  of  the  Jew- 
ish sacred  writings  might  be  greatly  extended ;  but  these 
are  sufficient  to  show  that  in  the  writings  of  the  Jewish 
historians,  prophets  and  sacred  songsters,  the  books  of  the 
Pentateuch  are  everywhere  mentioned,  referred  to,  or 
quoted,  as  the  production  of  Moses,  and  as  entitled  to 
profound  respect,  because  they  constituted  the  law  of 
-Jehovah^  the  gift  of  heaven  by  the  hand  of  Moses. 

Such  has  been  the  belief  of  the  Jews  in  all  ages  and  in 

8 


170  THE   PENTATEUCH 

all  lands  :  a  belief  handed  down  by  tradition,  and  corrob- 
orated by  those  references  to,  and  quotations  from  the 
work,  found  in  all  their  sacred  books,  from  the  earliest  to 
the  latest. 

The  evidence  furnished  by  the  Jewish  apocryphal 
books,  which,  though  not  inspired,  are  yet  quite  ancient, 
goes  to  establish  the  same  point. 

When,  at  length,  the  Jews  had  become  dispersed  in 
great  numbers  among  the  different  nations  in  Europe, 
Asia  and  Africa,  and  the  ancient  Hebrew,  the  language 
in  which  the  Pentateuch  and  their  other  sacred  books  are 
written,  was  no  longer  familiarly  spoken,  a  translation 
into  Greek,  then  the  prevailing  language,  was  made  by 
certain  learned  men,  somewhere  about  B.C.  200,  or  pos- 
sibly a  little  earlier.  This  translation,  called  the  Septua- 
gint,  or  version  of  the  seventy,  soon  passed  into  exten- 
sive use  among  the  Jews,  and  from  this  version,  the  wri- 
ters of  the  New  Testament  frequently  quote. 

Josephus,  the  Jewish  historian,  a  few  years  later  than 
Christ,  unquestionably  recognized  the  Pentateuch  as  the 
work  of  Moses ;  and  he  represents  this  as  the  universal 
belief  of  the  Jews,  from  the  very  time  of  Moses. 

To  a  later  period  it  is  not  necessary  to  pursue  the 
argument. 

The  Samaritan  Pentateuch,  also,  which  is  certainly 
very  ancient,  dating,  at  the  latest,  within  a  short  period 
subsequent  to  the  return  from  captivity,  and  not  improb- 
ably considerably  earlier,  although  its  origin  is  not 
known  with  absolute  certainty,  is  but  a  copy,  in  a  differ- 
ent and  probably  an  older  set  of  characters,  (called  by 
some  the  old  Hebrew,  or  Phoenician,)  of  the  very  same 
books  that  compose  the  Pentateuch,  as  now  found  in  the 


GENUINE   AND   AUTHENTIC.  171 

Hebrew  Bible,  and  in  the  Septuagint  version.  The 
Samaritan  Pentateuch  differs,  it  is  true,  in  some  particu- 
lars, from  the  Hebrew ;  but  it  is  sufficiently  close  in  its 
resemblance,  to  lend  strong  confirmation  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  Mosaic  origin  of  the  Pentateuch. 

Of  all  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  the  Samaritans  received 
as  of  divine  authority,  the  Pentateuch  alone ;  and  that, 
on  the  very  ground  that  it  was  the  production  of  Moses. 
After  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  and  the  establishment 
of  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  Samaria^  the  capital  of  Israel, 
sought  to  rival  Jerusalem,  the  capital  of  Judah.  A 
temple  was  erected  on  Mount  Gerizim,  and  a  rival  wor- 
ship was  there  established.  But  though  it  was  the  policy 
of  the  Kings  of  Israel,  to  encourage  attendance  on  the 
sacrifices,  and  other  rites  of  worship  established  at  Sa- 
maria, so  as  to  wean  their  subjects  as  much  as  possible 
from  Judah,  and  the  temple- worship  at  Jerusalem,  yet  in 
Samaria,  as  truly  as  in  Jerusalem,  the  authority  of  "  the 
hooh  of  the  lavj^^  given  by  Moses,  was  recognized ;  and  the 
prescriptions  given  in  the  Pentateuch,  were  followed, 
(except,  perhaps,  in  the  character  of  the  priesthood,)  as 
the  acknowledged  law.     (See  John  iv.  20,  22.) 

This  great  schism  among  the  Hebrews,  instead  of  fur- 
nishing the  occasion  for  foisting  in  among  the  sacred 
books,  a  spurious  document,  as  the  production  of  Moses, 
must  have  presented  increased  and  insuperable  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  any  such  attempt.  For  instance,  what 
King  of  Judah  could  possibly  hope  to  succeed  in  the  at- 
tempt at  such  a  fraud,  so  long  as  the  Kings  of  Israel  and 
the  people  of  Samaria  could  step  forwards  and  expose  it? 
Such  attempt,  if  made  by  either  Josiah  or  Ezra,  would 
have  been  easily  and  at  once  defeated  by  the  Samaritans, 


172  "      THE   PENTATEUCH 

who  could  and  who  would  have  said,  "  Up  to  the  time  of 
our  separation  into  two  distinct  governments,  we  wor- 
shipped at  the  same  shrine,  we  listened  to  the  reading  of 
the  same  sacred  books.  The  books  you  now  offer  as  the 
work  of  Moses,  the  leader  and  deliverer  of  our  fathers 
from  Egypt,  and  the  promulgator  of  all  the  laws  of  our 
common  religion,  are  a  new  production.  "We  never 
heard  of  them  before.  Our  old  men  know  nothing  of 
such  a  book.  They  have  had  no  tradition  of  any  such 
book,  handed  down  to  them  from  their  fathers.  This 
work,  unheard  of  until  now,  is  certainly  a  forgery,  it  is  a 
modern  production,  it  cannot  he  the  work  of  Moses ^ 

Such  objections  and  such  reasonings  would  certainly 
be  offered,  and  they  would  be  fatal  to  the  attempt. 

At  no  time,  from  the  days  of  Joshua,  would  it  have 
been  possible  for  any  man,  or  any  body  of  men  to  intro- 
duce among  the  Jewish  sacred  records  a  modern  work, 
or  a  modern  compilation  of  ancient  fragments  and  tradi- 
tions, and  to  gain  for  it  the  confidence  and  respect  of  the 
nation,  as  a  work  of  Moses.  The  imposition  would  have 
been  at  once  detected. 

On  solemn  festival  occasions,  which  frequently  recur- 
red, the  books  of  Moses,  i.  e.  the  law,  were  publicly  read 
in  the  hearing  of  all  the  people.  (Deut.  xxxi.  9-13, 
22,  24,  26.  The  first  attempt  thus  to  read  publicly  a 
new  production,  as  the  work  of  Moses,  must  have  pro- 
duced immediate  inquiry,  and  an  exposure  of  the  im- 
position. Hilkiah  could  not  have  succeeded  in  such  a 
fraud,  nor  could  Ezra ;  although  it  is  highly  probable 
that  Ezra  collected  the  sacred  books,  collated  different 
copies,  and  prepared  and  brought  into  public  use,  a  re- 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  173 

vised  and  accurate  copy  of  these  books,  and  especially 
of  the  Pentateuch.* 

It  is,  moreover,  not  improbable,  that  in  his  revised 
edition  of  the  sacred  books,  Ezra  introduced  the  modern 
Hebrew  characters  now  in  use,  as  more  convenient,  in 
place  of  the  old  Samaritan,  (the  Phoenician,  as  they  are 
sometimes  called,)  formerly  used  in  copies  of  the  law, 
and  which  are  still  found  in  the  Samaritan  copies  of  the 
Pentateuch.  It  is  also  highly  probable  that  from  the 
pen  of  Ezra,  (himself  an  inspired  man,)  if  not  from  the 
hand'  of  Joshua  previously,  originated  those  few  passages 
in  the  Pentateuch,  (such,  e.  g.  as  the  close  of  Deuteronomy, 
containing  a  brief  account  of  the  death  and  burial  of 
Moses,)  which  certainly  could  not  have  been  written  by 
Moses  himself — passages  on  which  some  of  the  most 
popular  objections  against  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  the 
Pentateuch  have  been  predicated. 

In  addition  to  the  above  argument,  drawn  from  refer- 
ences to  the  facts  stated  and  the  language  found  in  the 
Pentateuch,  standing  in  all  the  several  books  of  the  later 
Jewish  Scriptures,  down  to  the  close  of  the  Old  Testament 
canon,  a  Christian  must  regard  it  as  decisive  of  the  ques- 
tion, in  that  Jesus  Christ  does,  in  very  many  instances, 
speak  of  "  Moses, ^^  of  "  the  law  of  Moses, ^^  '''■Moses  and  the 
prophets,^''  so  as  to  leave  no  doubt  at  all  that  he  was  fa- 
miliar with  the  Pentateuch,  as  we  now  have  it.  Christ 
speaks  of  Abraham,  of  Lot,  of  the  overthrow  of  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah.     He  speaks  of  Noah  and  the  deluge ; 

*  "  The  great  work  of  Ezra,"  says  the  learned  Prideaux,  (see  his 
Connec.  of  Sac.  and  Prof.  History,  vol.  ii.  p.  102,)  •'  was  the  collecting  to- 
gether, and  setting  forth,  a  correct  edition  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  This 
both  Christians  and  Jews  give  Ezra  the  credit  of." 


174  THE   PENTATEUCH 

of  the  bush  burning  unconsumed  in  the  view  of  Moses  ; 
of  the  lifting  up  of  the  brazen  serpent  in  the  wilderness ; 
and  he  speaks  also  of  other  incidents,  and  sayings,  and 
institutions  of  Moses,  almost  innumerable  ;  and  he  speaks 
of  them  as  recorded  in  the  books  that  Moses  wrote.  So 
far,  then,  from  being  true,  that  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New  are  silent  as  to  the  Pentateuch,  and  its  author- 
ship by  Moses,  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  are  fall 
of  evidence  that  Moses  was,  and  that  Moses  alone  could 
be,  and  alone  was,  the  writer  of  those  very  books  we  call 
the  Pentateuch. 

It  is  egregious  trifling  to  affirm,  that  the  other  ivriters 
in  the  Bible  frequently  speak  of  the  "  law  of  Moses  J''  but  they 
nowhere  name  the  books  of  the  Pentateuch.  The  mere  name 
by  which  a  book  is  designated,  is  of  very  little  impor- 
tance. The  names  of  the  several  books,  as  given  in  our 
Bibles,  are  of  modern  origin.  They  are  Greek — confer- 
red, probably,  by  the  Greek  translators  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. These  names  could  not,  then,  have  been  applied 
to  any  of  the  several  books  composing  the  Pentateuch  ; 
nor  could  the  designation,  "  Pentateuch^^'  which  is  also  a 
word  of  Greek  derivation,  and  of  comparatively  modern 
origin^  have  been  applied  to  these  books  by  any  one  of 
the  writers  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  for  the  best  of 
all  reasons,  viz.,  these  names  were  not  in  use  at  all ; 
they  were  not  invented  until  long  after  Malachi,  the  last 
of  the  prophets,  was  dead. 

As  to  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament,  themselves 
Jews,  the  phraseology  current  in  the  nation  in  their  day, 
to  designate  the  different  portions  of  the  sacred  record, 
viz.,  "  Moses  and  the  prophets ^'^  or  "  the  law  and  the  proph- 
ets,^^  or  "  the  law,  the  prophets,  and  the  psalms,^'  was  neces- 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  175 

sarily  by  them,  employed.  Even  to  this  day,  the  Jews 
have  never  discovered  any  inclination  to  abandon  their 
own  national  phraseology  for  that  of  foreigners  and  Gen- 
tiles ;  and  least  of  all  in  relation  to  matters  strictly  Jew- 
ish, and  connected  with  their  religion  and  their  law.  To 
object  to  the  Mosaic  origin  of  the  Pentateuch,  the  fact 
that  modern  names  which  are  now  applied  to  its  several 
constituent  parts  were  not  employed  by  the  ancient  Jew- 
ish prophets,  historians,  and  bards,  in  times  preceding  the 
first  invention  of  those  modern  names,  is  surely  a  novel 
expedient. 

It  reminds  one  of  the  terms  in  which  was  couched  the 
challenge  made  by  the  celebrated  Prof  Agassiz  (the  only 
instance  probably  in  which  that  distinguished  naturalist 
has  evinced  ignorance  of  the  true  nature  of  the  evidence  he 
adduces  to  sustain  the  position  he  assumes — see  Christian 
Examiner  for  July,  1850,)  to  theologians  to  produce  from 
the  Scriptures  a  single  text  in  which  the  several  varieties  of 
color,  features,  &c.,  now  found  distinguishing  the  Caucas- 
ian, the  Negro,  the  Mongul,  &c.,  as  different  races  are  as- 
serted to  have  been  derived  from  changes  introduced  in  a  prim- 
itively more  uniform  stock.  This  is  prescribing  the  mode 
in  which  alone  a  writer  shall  express  his  thoughts,  and 
that  mode  one  in  which,  from  the  very  nature  of  things, 
that  waiter  could  not  have  contemplated  the  subject,  be- 
cause it  is  insisting  that  a  doctrine  cannot  be  taught  in  an 
ancient  document,  unless  it  be  clothed  in  terms  which 
could  only  have  originated  in,  and  which  are  inseparable 
from,  the  circumstances  and  the  intellectual  condition  of 
a  distinct,  a  different,  and  a  greatly  posterior  age ! 

Others  have  contended  that  all  the  evidence  adduced  for 
the  Mosaic  origin  of  the  Pentateuch  fails  to  establish  that 


176  THE   PENTATEUCH 

point.  They  tell  us,  that  although  it  may  be  true  the 
frequent  mention  of  ^'the  law  of  Moses^^  &c.,  made  in  the 
Jewish  Scriptures  before  the  captivity,  and  the  passages 
from  the  Pentateuch  cited  in  those  Jewish  Scriptures, 
and  the  allusions  therein  contained  to  laws  and  to  cus- 
toms, now  found  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  in  the  Penta- 
teuch alone,  do  not  prove  that  the  Pentateuch  was  then  ex- 
isting a  written  document,  much  as  we  now  possess  it,  and 
that  it  was  then  attributed  to  Moses  as  its  author ;  but  that 
all  this  well  comports  with  the  hypothesis,  that  the  Pen- 
tateuch is  a  modern  compilation,  not  older  than  the  cap- 
tivity, and  that  it  embodies,  through  the  care  of  its  skilful 
compilers,  certain  old  traditions,  and  orally  perpetuated 
laws,  together  with  certain  ancient  historical  fragments, 
some  of  which  may  possibly  have  been  found,  recorded 
in  a  rude,  hieroglyphic  character,  on  some  plaistered  altar, 
pillar,  or  wall,  that  had  survived  the  desolations  effected 
at  the  time  of  the  captivity !  Tim  is  a  hold  lajpothesis^ 
hut  groundless  and  utterly  improhable.  It  is  a  hypothesis 
advanced  in  the  teeth  of  many  strong  opposing  facts.  It 
is  advanced  for  the  sole  purpose  of  sustaining  a  favorite 
theory,  and  giving  plausibility  to  a  foregone  conclusion. 
It  is  just  about  as  reasonable  a  hypothesis  as  would  be 
that  which  should  maintain  that  the  works  of  William 
Shakspeare,  the  great  English  dramatic  bard,  are  not  the 
veritable  production  of  the  witty  and  versatile  deer-stealer 
in  the  age  of  the  British  Elizabeth,  but  that  they  are  a 
much  more  modern  production,  from  the  hand  of  a  more 
polished,  though  now  unknown  writer,  who  has  skilfully 
embodied  in  his  work  all  the  witty  sayings,  and  striking 
sentiments,  and  magnificent  descriptions,  and  sublime 
imagery,  floating  in  popular  tradition,  or  found  scattered 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  177 

over  the  pages  of  writers  who  flourished  a  little  after  the 
age  of  the  bard  of  Avon,  which  traditions  and  fragments 
were  generally  attributed  to  that  eccentric  genius ! 

To  maintain  such  hypothesis  of  the  modern  origin  of 
the  Pentateuch,  is  as  if  a  person  should  undertake  to 
show  that  the  Pilgrim's  Progress  and  the  Holy  War  were 
not  written  by  John  Bunyan,  the  poor  tinker  and  Bap- 
tist preacher,  who  so  long  languished  a  prisoner  in  Bed- 
ford jail.  Oh  no !  the  preaching  tinker  was  an  illiterate 
man,  altogether  unequal  to  the  writing  of  works  like 
these  in  their  pure  style  of  nervous  old  Saxon  English. 
John  Bunyan  (it  might  be  said)  was  a  wonderful  man 
certainly,  and  endowed  with  no  ordinary  genius ;  yet 
genius  alone  cannot  form  an  accomplished  writer.  Bun- 
yan doubtless  threw  out  many  striking  thoughts,  and  de- 
tailed to  his  friends  and  associates  some  marvellous 
stories,  in  a  singularly  allegorical  style :  still  these  were 
mere  detached  fragments,  orally  delivered  and  orally 
propagated ;  until  some  accomplished  and  modern  admi- 
rer of  this  rude  native  genius,  collected  these  traditionary 
allegories,  (just  as  Chatterton  gave  out  that  he  had  col- 
lected old  British  ballads,  and  as  McPherson  pretended 
that  he  had  collected  from  the  mouth  of  popular  enthu- 
siasm, the  traditionary  pieces  he  published  as  the  Poems 
of  Ossian,)  and  reduced  them  to  a  regular  system,  giving 
them  to  the  world,  as  we  now  have  them,  under  the 
name  of  the  Bedford  tinker  and  preacher. 

The  refutation  of  such  hypothesis  would  be  effected  in 
a  mode  precisely  similar  to  that  which  we  pursue  in  prov- 
ing that  the  Pentateuch  was  written  by  Moses.  That  is, 
we  show  that  the  work  was  in  existence  at  several  suc- 
cessive periods  running  back  to  the  age  of  its  reputed 

8* 


178  THE  PENTATEUCH 

author,  sustain  this  proof  by  references  to  the  work,  ad- 
duced from  other  authors,  or  by  quotations  in  those  au- 
thors from  this  work,  as  a  work  known  and  ascribed  to 
Shakspeare,  to  Bunyan,  or  to  Moses,  as  the  case  maybe! 
This  is  all  the  evidence  the  case  admits  of,  whether  as  to 
the  Pilgrim,  the  Tempest,  and  Macbeth,  &c.,  or  the  Pen- 
tateuch. 

All  tradition,  and  the  evidence  presented  in  the  whole 
series  of  Jewish  Scriptures,  unite  to  show  that  the  Penta- 
teuch, substantially  as  we  now  have  it,  was  written  by 
Moses.  But  if  Moses  wrote  the  Pentateuch,  then  it  is  a 
genuine  and  veracious  historical  document,  and  all  the 
wonderful  events  it  relates  did  really  occur!  If  this  be 
true,  then  Moses  wrote  by  commission  from  God;  he 
was  divinely  inspired!  No  man,  assuredly,  could  in- 
duce a  whole  nation  to  receive  such  a  book,  and  to  re- 
ceive it  as  containing  both  the  history  of  their  national 
origin,  the  law  of  their  religion,  the  canon  of  their  ritual 
in  worship,  and  the  statute-book  of  their  whole  land ;  and 
not  only  thus  to  receive  it,  but  also  to  observe  with  most 
religious  exactness,  as  the  Israelites  did  for  many  ages, 
rites  so  numerous,  so  singular,  so  expensive,  (and  so  pre- 
posterous, too,  if  the  narrative  given  in  these  books  be 
false,)  unless  that  nation  knew^  beyond  a  doubt,  that  the 
whole  series  of  events  related  in  that  book  was  true,  and 
that  the  long  succession  of  wonderful,  and  until  then^  un- 
heard-of prodigies,  had  really  occurred  before  their  own  eyes, 
just  as  the  book  describes  them. 

So  plain  is  it  that  if  Moses  wrote  the  Pentateuch,  then 
the  events  therein  recorded  must  be  true,  marvellous 
though  they  were,  that  on  this  very  ground  the  German 
mythical  interpreters  found  their  strongest,  and,  indeed. 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  179 

almost  their  only  argument.  They  reason  thus :  "If 
Moses  was  the  writer  of  the  Pentateuch,  the  narrative  it 
contains  must  be  true  :  because  no  man  could  present  to 
a  nation  a  narrative  of  events  which  he  therein  declares 
had  occurred  to  them,  and  appoint  laws  for  the  observ- 
ance of  certain  rites,  founded  upon  the  truth  of  those 
events,  and  persuade  that  whole  nation  to  receive  such 
book,  and  to  adopt  such  rites  as  sacred,  unless  that  peo- 
ple knew,  with  certainty,  that  the  narrative  was  true. 
But  the  stories  given  in  the  Pentateuch  cannot  he  true^ 
because  a  miracle  is  impossible^  and  the  Pentateuch  relates 
as  facts,  the  occurrence  of  many  astounding  miracles; 
therefore  the  Pentateuch  cannot  be  historically  true,  as 
to  its  facts ;  and  therefore  the  Pentateuch  cannot  have 
been  written  by  Moses.  It  miLst  be  the  production  of  a 
later  age,  after  sufficient  time  had  elapsed  to  allow  the 
formation  and  general  spread  of  rumors,  and  traditions, 
becoming  more  and  more  marvellous,  as  time  rolled  on, 
until  they  could,  without  obvious  distortion,  be  presented 
in  one  continuous  narrative  of  unparalleled  prodigies,  as 
now  found  in  the  Pentateuch." 

But  certainly,  we  may  reply,  if  a  blank  denial  is  thus 
to  set  aside  all  well-ascertained  tradition,  and  the  testi- 
mony of  historical  documents,  then  inquiry  is  fruitless, 
and  argument  is  of  no  value.  The  skepticism  of  German 
mythists,  in  relation  to  the  possibility  of  miracles,  not- 
withstanding, and  their  bold  denial  of  the  Mosaic  origin 
of  the  Pentateuch,  notwithstanding,  also,  we  must  still 
believe  that  the  Pentateuch  was  written  by  Moses. 

It  is,  moreover,  well  worthy  of  attentive  notice,  that 
with  its  claim  to  Mosaic  origin^  the  character  of  this  venerable 
docttment  well  comports/ 


tS6  THE   PENTATEUCH 

The  Pentateuch  bears  the  impress  of  its  reputed  au- 
thor, of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  of  the  admirable  edu- 
cation he  had  received  at  the  court  of  Egypt,  and  of  the 
nations  among  whom  he  moved,  and  by  whom  he  was 
surrounded.  It  may  be  safely  asserted,  that  no  man  but 
Moses,  or  one  educated  as  Moses  was,  and  a  contempo- 
rary of  the  age  in  which  Moses  certainly  lived,  could 
have  written  the  Pentateuch. 

In  the  descriptions  therein  given,  and  the  allusions 
made  to  nations  and  tribes  of  men,  to  historical  events, 
and  to  geographical  matters — such  as  cities,  rivers,  coun- 
tries— their  climate,  their  productions,  the  prevailing  cus- 
toms of  their  inhabitants — and  especially  in  everything 
which,  in  these  several  respects,  relates  to  Egypt  and  to 
the  regions  skirting  the  Arabian  desert,  these  books  ex- 
hibit ample  and  conclusive  evidence,  that  they  are  the 
work  of  one  who  had  lived  in  Egypt,  and  who  had  been 
there  most  thoroughly  educated  in  the  era  of  Egypt's 
greatest  glory  and  power. 

This  point  might  be  largely  illustrated,  and  it  has  in- 
deed been  well  illustrated  in  the  work  of  Ilengstenberg, 
entitled,  "  Egypt  and  the  books  of  Moses ;"  also  in 
"  Egypt,  her  Testimony  to  the  Truth,"  by  Osburne  ;  and 
in  "  liccherches  en  Nuhie  et  en  Egyjptc^''  by  Ampere  ;  to  say 
nothing  of  older  and  more  erudite  authors.  Moreover, 
the  statements  found  in  the  Pentateuch  concerning  the 
transit  of  the  Hebrews  from  Egypt,  through  the  Red 
Sea,  the  transactions  near  Mount  Sinai,  and  their  wan- 
derings from  place  to  place  for  many  long  years,  in  the 
great  Arabian  desert,  and  the  circumstances  detailed  in 
connection  with  other  events  related  in  these  books,  are 
found  to  agree  well  with  all  that  can  be  now  ascertained 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  Wl 

relative  to  tlie  places  mentioned,  as  they  must  have  been 
at  that  time.  (See  on  this  subject,  "  Tour  from  Thebes 
to  Sinai,"  by  Lepsius ;  passim.  See  Laborde's  Arabia 
and  Petra;  fol.  passim.  Paris,  1830.  See  Eobinson's 
Biblical  Researches.  See  Lynch's  Expedition  to  the 
Dead  Sea.) 

Another  strong  corroborative  argument  for  the  Mosaic 
authorship  of  these  books  may  be  thus  stated : 

The  plan,  the  arrangement  of  the  several  parts  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch^ the  character  of  the  compositioti,  the  language  and 
the  very  style  in  which  it  is  written,  all  agree  with  the  char- 
acter of  Moses,  with  that  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  and  of 
the  people  for  whom  he  wrote. 

The  earlier  portions  of  this  work,  as  Genesis  and  Ex- 
odus, are  brief  in  their  narrative,  concise  in  style,  and 
simple  in  structure.  Nor  is  it  by  any  means  improbable, 
that  in  the  earlier  chapters  of  Genesis  may  be  embodied 
some  ancient  oral  traditions,  and  some  fragmentary  his- 
toric documents  of  a  remote  antiquity.  These  traditions 
and  legends,  if  admitted  by  Moses  in  his  work,  were, 
doubtless,  by  him  carefully  selected  from  sources  well 
known  as  authentic — reduced  to  order — and  freed  from 
all  admixture  of  popular  error  and  superstitious  additions ; 
and  were  thus  by  the  same  master-mind,  Moses,  so  in- 
troduced in  these  books,  as  that  they  justly  claim  respect 
under  the  seal  of  divine  inspiration  ;  and  they  demand 
attention,  as  constituting  an  introduction  to  the  narrative 
of  events  subsequently  declared  in  these  books  to  have 
occurred  in  the  writer's  own  time — an  introduction  in- 
dispensable to  the  right  understanding  of  those  events, 
and  of  their  bearing  on  the  interests  of  the  nation  for 
whom  he  wrote. 


182  THE   PENTATEUCH 

For,  certainly,  it  is  obvious  that  without  the  book  of 
Genesis,  the  causes  which  led  to  the  temporary  residence 
of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  their  marvellous  deliverance 
thence,  their  migrations  in  the  wilderness,  and  their  final 
settlement  in  Canaan,  with  all  the  astounding  prodigies 
that  attended  this  their  exodus,  their  wanderings,  and 
their  permanent  establishment,  together  with  all  the  pe- 
culiar rites  and  institutions  of  religion  adopted  among 
the  Israelites,  are  totally  inexplicable. 

The  book  of  Genesis,  therefore,  and  the  opening  of 
Exodus,  constitute  a  necessary  preface  to  the  remainder 
of  the  Pentateuch :  necessary  to  prepare  the  minds  of 
the  Israelites  for  rendering  homage  to  Jehovah  alone,  as 
the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth — the  God  of  their  ances- 
tors— in  obedience  to  the  laws  in  these  very  books  de- 
clared to  be  appointed  for  them,  on  His  authority. 

Moreover,  in  the  account  given  by  Moses  of  the  insti- 
tution of  these  laws,  he  records  only  those  facts  in  the 
Jewish  history  which  must  have  been  well  known  to 
every  Israelite  ;  facts  which  had  given  occasion  to  the 
enactment  of  these  laws  and  to  the  institution  of  these 
peculiar  rites,  as  for  instance  the  institution  of  the  Pass- 
over in  Egypt ;  or  facts  which  might  well  serve  as  a  mo- 
tive for  the  observance  of  the  rites  thus  instituted,  as, 
c.  g,  the  destruction  of  Corah  and  his  abettors. 

The  closing  book  of  the  Pentateuch,  Deuteronomy,  is 
somewhat  peculiar,  but  perfectly  characteristic  of  the 
writer,  and  of  the  age  to  which  it  is  attributed.  It  is  more 
diffuse  in  its  style,  than  the  other  books,  and  it  abounds 
with  repetitions.  It  is,  indeed,  just  such  a  production  as 
we  might  look  for,  from  an  old  man,  long  habituated  to 
govern  and  to  guide  a  people  still  unsettled,  somewhat 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  186 

rude,  and  often  refractory ;  but  whose  interests  laj  near 
his  heart. 

In  this  book  (says  the  learned  Rosenmiiller,)  we  hear 
a  leader  near  his  end,  recalling  to  the  remembrance  of 
his  people,  all  the  (wonderful)  events  which  had  occurred 
to  them  under  his  leadership,  and  earnestly  exhorting 
them  to  the  scrupulous  observance  of  those  laws,  and. 
those  institutions,  which,  by  divine  authority,  he  had  es- 
tablished among  them ;  while,  in  some  few  instances,  he 
repealed  laws  previously  given,  and  appointed  new  ones. 
In  Deuteronomy,  he  refers  to  three  other  books  previously 
written,  to  the  contents  of  which  he  appeals,  and  he 
urges  the  observance  of  the  laws  therein  contained;  and 
from  the  strange  events  therein  recorded,  he  draws  argu- 
ments and  reasons  for  obedience  to  those  laws. 

So  that,  without  a  knowledge  of  these  other  books  of 
the  Pentateuch,  the  readers  of  Deuteronomy  must  be  ut- 
terly at  a  loss  to  understand  it.  The  several  books  that 
make  up  the  Pentateuch,  are,  therefore,  closely  connected 
together :  they  constitute  the  parts  of  one  whole,  and  any 
one  of  these  parts  being  wanting,  the  work  is  incomplete. 

The  fragmentary  character  of  a  large  portion  of  the  Penta- 
teuch^ and  the  diversity  of  style  found  in  the  different  portions 
of  it,  have  been  triumphantly  appealed  to,*  as  yielding 
proof  that  these  hooks  cannot  be  the  work  of  Moses,  nor  of 
any  one  man,  but  of  several  persons,  and  probably  at 
different  and  distant  periods.  On  the  contrary,  we  con- 
tend that  the  fragmentary  character  of  a  large  part  of 
the  Pentateuch,  and  the  very  diversity  of  style  distin- 
guishing the  earlier  from  the  later  portions  of  it,  are  pre- 

*  See  Appendix  to  Two  Lectures,  &c.,  by  Dr.  J.  C.  N.,  pp.  114,  116. 
New  York,  1849. 


184:  THE  PENTATEUCH 

cisely  such  as  we  might  expect  to  find  in  an  extended 
work,  written  by  such  a  man  as  Moses,  burdened  with 
the  cares  of  government,  and  continually  wandering 
with  a  numerous  and  undisciplined  people,  from  place  to 
place. 

The  diversity  of  style  perceptible  in  the  different  parts 
of  this  work,  will  be  found  on  a  dispassionate  examina- 
tion, to  be  no  more  than  what  the  course  of  time  and  the 
progress  of  events  in  the  long  leadership  of  Moses  over 
Israel,  must  necessarily  have  produced  in  the  writings 
of  the  same  man.  Had  these  books  been  the  production  of 
different  authors,  or  were  the  Pentateuch  a  mere  compi- 
lation of  old  legends  and  fragmentary  documents  put  to- 
gether by  one  man,  the  style  of  the  different  portions  of 
the  work  must  have  been  greatly  more  varied, — betray- 
ing the  authorship  of  several  different  hands.  Eosen- 
miiller  has  very  briefly  stated  this  point  of  the  argument, 
thus, — speaking  of  the  books  following  Genesis,  he  re- 
marks: "Ordo  rationis  non  ubique  coramodus,  et  oratio 
ipsa  progreditur  scepe  per  disrupta  sine  nexu  fragmenta, 
haud  raro  singulari  clausula  terminata:  quoe,  arguunt 
(not  a  diversity  of  authors,  but)  auctorem  non  continen- 
ter  scribenteirij  sed  soepius  interruptum^  qualem  novimus 
Mosen  tot,  tantisque  negotiis  obrutum,  continuisque 
migrationibus  distractum." — (Proleg.  in  Pent.  p.  6.) 

The  stjde  of  the  Pentateuch  is  certainly  not  uniform  ; 
the  latter  portion  of  it,  and  especially  Deuteronomy,  is 
more  verbose,  more  impetuous,  more  hortatory,  and  more 
figurative :  precisely  what  we  might  expect,  if  its  author 
be  Moses,  then  an  old  man,  but  still  active,  and  deeply 
patriotic. 

The  learned  Jahn  has  remarked,  on  this  point:  "  The 


GENUINE   AND   AUTHENTIC.  186 

order,  the  arrangement  of  the  parts,  is  very  peculiar.  It 
is  not  strictly  regular,  and  connected ;  but  often  abrupt 
and  almost  unnatural ;  it  often  consists  of  successive 
fragments,  broken,  unconnected,  and  these  are  sometimes 
wound  up  with  distinct  conclusions." 

This,  also,  is  what  we  might  look  for,  in  the  produc- 
tion of  a  man  like  Moses,  distracted  by  a  multiplicity  of 
avocations,  writing,  not  continuously,  but  with  frequent 
interruptions  ;  and  for  that  very  reason,  terminating  dif- 
ferent parts  of  his  work  with  special  conclusions.  The 
latter  portion  of  the  Pentateuch  partakes,  obviously,  of 
the  character  of  a  journal  of  passing  events,  interspersed 
with  appropriate  reflections,  that  are  expressed  mainly  in 
the  form  of  prescription,  or  of  admonition. 

This  whole  work  bears  the  impress  of  the  progress  of 
years,  during  which,  the  writer,  from  varying  circum- 
stances, and  advancing  age,  had  changed  his  style  and 
language;  sometimes  writing  with  his  own  hand  ;  some- 
times dictating  to  an  amanuensis,  and  sometimes,  even 
incorporating  into  his  work,  certain  trustworthy  ancient 
traditions,  or  extracts  from  public  and  authentic  records. 
All  this  seems  plain,  and  almost  self-evident,  and  it  will 
account  for  much  of  the  diversity  of  style  found  in  dif- 
ferent portions  of  the  Pentateuch. 

Once  more.  The  language  in  luliich  the  Pentateuch  is 
written,  Hebrew  pure  as  in  the  best  days  of  Jewish  liter- 
ature, has  been  appealed  to  as  proof  that  Moses  could  not 
be  the  writer  of  the  Pentateuch. 

The  argument  is  thus  stated,  ''  The  Hebreiu  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch, is  almost  identical  vnth  that  of  the  later  prophets : 
and  yet  it  is  very  improbable  that  the  Hebreiu  underwent  no 
change  during  the  space  of  a  thousand  yeo^rs^     And  certain 


186  THE  PENTATEUCH 

critics  tell  us  that,  in  the  books  written  about  the  time 
of  the  captivity,  we  find  forms  of  words,  phrases,  and 
unusual  significations  affixed  to  some  words,  identical 
with  those  found  in  the  books  attributed  to  Moses.  (See 
Rosenm.  Proleg  to  Pent.  p.  6,  sec.  3.)  So  De  Wette,  {In- 
trod,  to  Old  Test.  vol.  ii.  p.  40,)  boldly  asserts,  ''The 
authors  of  the  (so-called)  Mosaic  hoohs^  betray  themselves  as 
living  at  a  later  age.""^  De  Wette  is  here  speaking  of  the 
style,  and  peculiarities  of  forms,  and  of  phrases  occur- 
ring in  the  Pentateuch ;  and  he  adduces  many  particu- 
lars to  sustain  his  position. 

But,  in  reply  to  this  objection^  we  aver :  It  is  asserted 
by  critics  certainly  as  learned,  as  impartial,  as  candid, 
and  every  way  as  competent  to  judge,  as  was  De  Wette, 
or  any  one  of  all  those  who  take  the  same  ground  with 
De  Wette,  that  the  language  in  which  the  Pentateuch  is 
written,  is  certainly  very  ancient  Hebrew ;  and  it  is,  in 
many  respects,  peculiar.  The  few  foreign  words  which 
occur  in  it,  are  obviously  of  Egyptian  origin.  There  are 
very  many  words  and  phrases,  peculiar  to  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  which  are  not  found  at  all  in  any  of  the  later 
books  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures.  Of  these  forms,  or 
words,  peculiar  to  the  Pentateuch  exclusively,  the  late 
learned  Jahn  collected  upwards  of  one  hundred,  and 
this  list  was,  in  a  posthumous  work  of  his,  extended  to 
above  two  hundred;  while  many  other  phrases,  and 
words,  and  forms,  occurring  in  the  later  Jewish  writings, 
are  not  found  at  all  in  the  Pentateuch.  • 

The  language  in  which  the  Pentateuch  is  written,  is 
indeed  very  much  like  that  employed  in  the  Psalms,  and 
even  in  the  later  writings ;  but  that  there  is  a  very  per- 
ceptible difference ;  that  the  style  of  the  Pentateuch  is 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  187 

peculiar  to  itself  in  many  important  particulars,  will  be 
very  obvious  to  anyone  who  will  attentively  read,  in  his 
Hebrew  Bible,  several  successive  chapters  in  Genesis, 
in  Exodus,  and  in  Deuteronomy,  and  then  read  three  or 
four  of  the  Psalms,  in  different  parts  of  the  book,  follow- 
ing it  by  reading  portions  in  the  books  of  Ezra,  of  Hosea, 
of  Malachi.  Obvious  points  of  difference  will  be  found, 
although  it  may  not  be  easy  to  mention  precisely  wherein 
that  difference  lies,  with  the  critical  skill  of  Jahn  or  of 
Rosenmiiller.  All  this  notwithstanding,  it  is  cheerfully 
conceded  that  there  is  a  great  similarity  between  the  He- 
brew of  the  Pentateuch  and  that  of  the  later  books  of  the 
Jewish  Scriptures ;  but  not  greater  than  might  naturally 
be  expected  even  in  the  writers  of  ages  so  wide  apart, 
among  a  people  like  the  Jews,  who,  separated  from  all 
other  nations,  by  their  religion,  their  laws,  and  their  ab- 
horrence of  strangers,  had  very  little  intercourse  with 
foreigners,  and  might,  therefore,  be  expected  to  retain 
their  language  in  greater  purity,  and  for  a  longer  period, 
than  almost  any  other  nation. 

Besides  all  this,  the  books  of  Moses  constituted  not 
only  the  classics  of  their  literature,  but  also  the  standard 
of  their  religious  belief,  and  further  still,  their  ecclesias- 
tical canon,  and  the  law  of  the  land. 

In  their  solemn  religious  assemblies^  the  books  of  Moses 
were  continually  read,  in  the  hearing  of  all  the  people. 

In  their  courts  of  justice^  also,  and  in  all  their  legal  pro- 
ceedings, civil  and  criminal  both,  the  Pentateuch  was  the 
statute-book,  the  authority  uniformly  appealed  to. 

All  these  circumstances  would  contribute  to  render 
the  language,  and  the  peculiar  phraseology  of  the  Penta- 
teuch familiar  to  every  Jew,  and  would  tend  to  keep  the 


188  ■  THE   PENTATEUCH 

language  of  that  document  pure,  and  unchanged,  in  cur- 
rent use. 

Furthermore,  from  its  very  structure,  it  may,  I  think, 
be  affirmed,  that  the  Hebrew,  like  most  of  the  other  ori- 
ental tongues,  is  less  liable  to  corruption  and  to  change, 
than  are  our  Western  dialects. 

The  Orient  is  proverbially  stationary.  Its  customs,  its 
opinions,  and  its  languages,  like  the  monuments  of  Egypt, 
furnish  but  slight  indications  of  the  effect  produced  by 
rolling  ages. 

Of  the  Chinese  language^  it  is  asserted  by  Dr.  Marsh- 
man,  (confessedly,  a  competent  judge  in  the  case,)  that 
for  2000  years,  Chinese  writings  show  scarcely  any  per- 
ceptible change.  The  language  employed  in  the  works 
of  Confucius,  and  that  used  by  his  commentators,  1500 
years  after  him,  exhibit  no  difference,  unless  it  be  that 
the  master  is  more  concise  in  his  style,  than  his  disciples. 
The  language  is  the  same  in  both. 

In  the  character  of  the  Arabic  language^  a  similar  stead- 
fastness is,  by  competent  judges,  said  to  appear.  On  a 
comparison  of  the  Koran  with  its  later  commentaries, 
there  is  found  but  little  change  in  the  Arabic,  from  the 
time  of  Mohammed. 

Why,  then,  should  the  great  resemblance  in  the  lan- 
guage employed  by  David,  by  Solomon,  or  by  the  later 
prophets,  to  that  of  the  Pentateuch,  be  deemed  an  objec- 
tion to  the  Mosaic  origin  of  that  document  ? 

Another  objection^  and  the  last  I  shall  notice,  is  to  this  effect: 

Language  is  of  slow  growth ;  and  ages  are  requisite  to 
bring  the  dialect  of  a  rude  and  unsettled  tribe  like  the 
Hebrews  to  anything  like  the  grace  and  flexibility  of  a 
perfect  language.     Now  the  Hebrew  of  the  Pentateuch, 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  189 

is  equal  to  that  of  the  best  productions  of  the  most  pros- 
perous ages  of  Hebrew  literature. 

It  is,  therefore,  utterly  incredible,  that  one  man,  Moses, 
the  very  first  writer  in  the  language,  and  who  alone  raised 
himself  to  distinction,  in  a  rude  age,  should  have  produced 
a  work,  which  at  once  presented  the  language  he  used,  in 
a  state  of  the  highest  perfection,  equal  to  the  noblest  of 
all  subsequent  productions  in  that  language. 

But,  now,  a  moment's  reflection  will  show  that  this  ob- 
jection carries  but  little,  if  any  weight.  The  language  of 
Homer,  peculiar  and  characteristic  though  it  is,  is  not  in- 
ferior in  vigor,  in  expressiveness,  or  in  the  flexibility  of 
its  forms,  to  the  most  polished  productions  of  later  ages. 

Luther,  by  his  writings,  fixed  the  character  of  the 
modern  German. 

Shakspeare,  together  with  the  English  version  of  the 
Bible,  may  be  said,  before  and  beyond  all  other  works, 
to  have  established  the  standard  of  good  English. 

It  is  well  known,  also,  that  among  the  savage  tribes 
roaming  in  the  wilds  of  America,  are  some  whose  lan- 
guages are  so  perfect  in  their  structure,  exhibiting  such 
variety  in  their  combinations,  declensions,  and  expres- 
sions, such  copiousness,  also,  in  their  synonyms,  as  can 
scarcely  be  equalled,  and  certainly  not  excelled,  by  the 
most  cultivated  languages  of  Europe,  or  even  of  Asia. 
(See  Humboldt.) 

Let  but  a  Luther,  a  Shakspeare,  a  Milton,  or,  above 
all,  a  Moses  arise  in  one  of  these  tribes,  and  who  shall  say 
that  his  literary  efforts  would  not  result  in  a  work,  the 
standard  of  the  language,  for  many  successive  genera- 
tions ?  Among  a  people  like  the  Israelites,  rude  indeed 
as  to  government,  and  the  due  appreciation  of  free  insti- 


190  THE   PENTATEUCH 

tutions,  and  not  rude  as.  to  the  arts,  literature,  and  civil- 
ization, since  they  emerged  from  the  bosom  of  the  most 
civilized  nation  then  existing,  it  is  not  wonderful  that 
Moses  (certainly  a  man  of  genius,  and  thoroughly  edu- 
cated, aye,  probably  the  finest  scholar  of  that  highly  cul- 
tivated age,)  should,  when  composing  a  series  of  writings 
which  embody  doctrines  so  sublime,  narratives  so  touch- 
ing, events  so  various  and  so  astounding,  and  laws  so 
diversified  and  so  copious,  as  are  found  in  the  Penta- 
teuch, produce  a  work  in  which  the  language  he  em- 
ployed should  at  once  appear  in  almost  its  perfection, 
and  become  the  standard  of  the  tongue,  and  the  model 
of  succeeding  writers. 

The  purity  of  the  Hebrew  in  which  the  Pentateuch  is 
written,  and  the  fragmentary  character  of  its  contents,  do 
therefore,  so  far  from  furnishing  ground  of  objection 
against  the  Mosaic  origin  of  that  document,  rather  con- 
firm and  complete  the  arguments  adduced  to  prove  that 
Moses  did  write  the  Pentateuch. 

The  language  is  the  genuine  old  Hebrew,  with  some 
admixture,  here  and  there,  of  Egyptian  terms ;  just  as 
we  might  expect  to  find  in  a  work  of  Moses,  himself  a 
pure  Hebrew,  a  man  of  pre-eminent  genius,  and  of  vast 
learning  ;  but  of  learning  acquired  at  the  royal  court  of 
Egypt. 

Such,  then,  is  the  character  of  the  Pentateuch,  both  as 
to  its  language,  its  contents,  its  style,  and  its  whole  ar- 
rangement, that  it  is  exactly  the  kind  of  document  we 
might  have  looked  for  from  Moses,  a  man  of  pure  Hebrew 
descent,  of  commanding  talents,  great  learning,  and  sound 
discretion,  who,  while  burdened  with  many  duties,  often 
unavoidably  interrupted,  and  harassed  by  frequent  jour- 


GENUINE  AND  AUTHENTIC.  191 

neyings  from  place  to  place,  in  command  of  a  turbulent 
multitude,  busied  himself  in  the  composition  of  these 
books,  at  intervals,  during  the  long  period  of  forty  years  ; 
and  who  wrote  Deuteronomy  last  of  all,  when  he  was 
quite  an  old  man,  and  near  his  end.  On  a  careful  review 
of  the  whole  argument  we  may  safely  aver :  We  have 
not  so  much  evidence,  by  a  great  deal,  nor  evidence  so 
direct,  to  show  that  the  Dialogues  ascribed  to  Plato,  are 
really  his  work,  or  that  the  treatise  "  On  the  JSublwie,"  is 
the  work  of  Longinus,  or  that  Virgil  wrote  the  ^neid 
and  the  Georgics,  nor  that  "  Othelbj'' is  the  genuine  work 
of  William  Shakspeare,  as  we  have  to  show  that  Moses, 
the  adopted  son  of  Egypt's  royal  house,  the  Hebrew-born 
protege  of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  the  emancipator  and 
the  legislator  of  Israel,  did  really  write,  and  did  deliver 
for  safe  keeping  to  the  sacerdotal  tribe  in  his  nation,  as 
his  own  work,  his  great  legacy  to  his  countrymen,  the 
Pentateuch,  substantially  as  we  now  have  it. 


LECTURE   V. 

GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES,  AND  INSPIRED. 

In  tbe  preceding  lecture  was  presented  the  course  of 
reasoning,  deemed  satisfactory  in  proof  of  the  position 
that  the  first  five  books  in  the  Bible,  called  the  Penta- 
teuch, or  the  books  of  Moses,  were  really  written  by  the 
great  Jewish  lawgiver,  and  by  him  alone.  But,  inas- 
much as  the  main  efforts  of  the  skeptical  are  directed 
against  the  book  of  Genesis,  to  shake  our  confidence  in 
its  authenticity,  and  to  show  that  Moses  did  not  write  it, 
that  point  is  discussed  in  the  present  lecture.  In  order 
that  the  reasoning  which  will  be  adduced  to  establish  the 
Mosaic  origin  of  the  book  of  Genesis  may  be  duly  appre- 
ciated, it  is  here  prefaced  by  a  brief  recapitulation  of  the 
argument  for  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  whole  Penta- 
teuch, as  one  document.     Thus : 

Among  the  books  we  have  received  from  the  Jews,  and 
by  them  deemed  sacred,  are  five,  considered  as  constituting 
together  one  work,  which  is,  by  the  Jews,  unanimously, 
and  has  been,  in  all  ages,  attributed  to  their  great  law- 
giver, Moses.  This  book,  the  Pentateuch,  is  obviously 
very  ancient.  It  is  introductory  to  all  the  other  Jewish 
books ;  and  it  forms  the  foundation  on  which  rests  the 
system  of  their  faith,  and  their  peculiar  rites.     It  is  spoken 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  198 

of,  referred  to,  or  quoted  from,  in  all  the  other  Jewish 
sacred  books.  On  examining  this  work  itself,  we  find  the 
claim  therein  advanced,  that  Moses,  the  great  Jewish 
lawgiver,  did  himself  write  it :  and  this  claim  is  so  put, 
as  to  cover  the  entire  document,  the  whole  of  the  five 
books  of  which  the  Pentateuch  consists.  This  claim  is 
fully  corroborated  by  the  manner  in  which,  in  every 
succeeding  part  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  from  Joshua  to 
Malachi,  this  document  is  referred  to  as  ^'•ihe  law"  ^'•the 
law  of  the  Lord^^  "^Ae  hook  of  the  law  of  Moses ^  That,  by 
the  phrases,  "  the  law  of  Hoses'^  "  the  hook  of  the  law, "  &c.,  so 
often  occurring  in  all  the  other  writings  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, reference  is  intended  to  the  Pentateuch,  the  whole 
document  including  the  five  books,  as  we  now  have  it, 
and  not  to  any  mere  tradition,  or  oral  law,  or  to  any 
smaller  fragmentary  documents,  is  plain,  from  the  char- 
acter of  the  phrases  themselves,  and  from  the  connection 
in  which  they  occur.  This  is  also  yet  more  obvious  from 
the  facts, 

1st.  That  Moses,  on  its  completion,  publicly  delivered 
to  the  Levites  a  copy  of  his  work,  to  be,  by  them,  care- 
fully deposited  in  the  Ark  of  the  covenant ;  that  it  might, 
with  that  ark,  be  sacredly  preserved,  in  the  sanctuary  of 
their  worship.     (See  Deut.  xxxi.  24,  25,  26.) 

2d.  That  it  was  to  be  publicly  read  before  all  the 
people,  in  certain  solemn  assemblies  often  recurring. 
(See  Deut.  xxxi.  10,  11.) 

8d.  That  in  the  work  itself,  many  wonderful  prodigies 
are  related,  as  of  actual  occurrence  under  the  leadership 
of  Moses,  and  as  being  well  known  to  all  the  people. 

4th.  That  on  these  facts  the  peculiar  institutions  of  the 
Jews  were  based  ;  and  the  motives  to  observe  these  in- 

9 


194  GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES. 

stitutions,  were  drawn  solely  from  the  deep  conviction  of 
the  truth  of  this  statement  of  facts. 

In  a  case  of  this  kind,  imposition  on  a  whole  nation, 
was  out  of  the  question.  Moreover,  this  very  document, 
the  Pentateuch,  was  the  statute-book  of  the  land.  It  was 
the  standard  authority  of  jurisprudence,  in  the  practice 
of  the  courts  of  justice,  as  well  as  the  fountain-head  of 
their  religious  faith. 

This  circumstance  would,  of  itself,  render  imposition 
and  the  introduction,  at  any  time,  of  forgeries,  as  the 
genuine  work  of  Mos^s,  doubly  impossible. 

At  no  period,  from  Joshua  to  the  close  of  the  captivity, 
could  such  forgery  have  succeeded.  Hilkiah  did  not 
palm,  and  he  could  not  possibly  have  palmed  on  King 
Josiah,  a  forged  document,  as  the  law  of  Moses.  He 
produced,  it  is  probable,  from  its  ancient  repository  in 
the  sides  of  the  ark,  where  it  had  long  lain  almost  for- 
gotten, the  autograph  copy  of  the  Pentateuch,  in  the  hand- 
writing of  Moses  himself  (See  2  Kings  xxiii.  8;  2 
Chron.  xxxiv.  14.)  Ezra  did  not  impose  on  the  people  a 
compilation  of  his  own,  as  the  work  of  Moses  ;  such  for- 
gery would  have  been  impracticable.  Ezra  merely  put 
forth  a  new  and  correct  edition  of  the  books  of  Moses ; 
and  probably  in  a  copy,  written  out  in  the  present  He- 
brew letters,  more  modern,  and  deemed  more  convenient 
than  the  ancient  Phoenician  characters.  A  calm  exami- 
nation of  all  the  facts  in  the  case,  will  show  to  any  can- 
did mind,  that  at  no  time  after  the  death  of  Moses,  would 
it  have  been  possible  for  any  man,  however  distinguish- 
ed, or  however  adroit,  to  palm  upon  the  confidence  of 
the  people  as  the  work  of  Moses,  any  forged  books,  and 
to  introduce  such  books  into  general  use  among  them,  in 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF   MOSES.  195 

regulating  the  services  of  their  temple-worship,  and  the 
proceedings  of  their  courts  of  justice. 

There  is  not,  for  the  authorship  of  any  ancient  book 
in  existence,  evidence  so  full,  so  complete,  and  so  con- 
clusive, as  there  is  for  the  Mosaic  origin  of  the  Penta- 
teuch. For,  to  avail  myself  of  a  brief  argument  present- 
ed by  the  industrious  and  judicious  Jahn : — 

1.  The  promulgation  of  no  other  ancient  book  was 
equally  solemn,  public,  and  known  to  all  contemporaries. 

2.  The  authorship  of  no  ancient  book  is  equally  cer- 
tain, or,  in  the  prevalent  scarcity  of  books,  could  be 
handed  down  to  posterity  with  equal  facility. 

3.  No  other  book  was,  like  this,  preserved  in  a  public 
and  sacred  place,  and  hallowed  by  the  reverence  of  an 
entire  nation. 

4.  No  other  book  received,  like  this,  a  public  and  per- 
petual testimony,  from  the  public  observance  of  laws 
contained  in  it,  which  were  never  totally  and  entirely 
neglected.  For,  be  it  remembered,  the  laws  laid  down  in 
the  Pentateuch  were  observed,  (and  to  this  day,  many 
of  those  laws  are  observed,  so  far  as  circumstances  will 
permit,  by  Jews  in  every  country  under  heaven,)  for 
these  very  reasons,  that  they  were  written  in  the  books 
of  Moses,  and  that  they  were  by  him  promulgated,  under 
authority  from  that  God  who  created  the  universe,  and 
who  sent  the  deluge  on  a  disobedient  world ;  and  who 
had  given  various  ample  promises  to  the  patriarchs,  a 
part  of  which  he  had  already  fulfilled ;  and  who,  finally, 
had  performed  many  astonishing  miracles  in  Egypt  and 
in  Arabia,  as  recorded  in  this  very  book,  in  favor  of 
the  Jews,  their  ancestors,  as  His  own  peculiar  people. 

Furthermore,  when,  after  the    death   of  Solomon,  a 


196  GENESIS   THE   WORK  OF   MOSES. 

schism  took  place  in  the  Jewish  nation,  even  then, 
among  the  schismatic  Israelites,  or  Samaritans,  a  copy  of 
the  Pentateuch,  as  the  work  of  Moses,  the  common  law- 
giver of  the  whole  nation,  was  carefully  preserved,  writ- 
ten in  the  old  Phoenician  characters.  This  work  has  ever 
been  held  in  great  reverence  among  the  Samaritans,  and 
it  has  been  perpetuated  to  the  present  day.  Of  this 
Samaritan  copy  of  the  Pentateuch,  a  version  in  the  more 
modern  Samaritan  dialect,  has  long  been  in  existence 
among  them.  This  work,  and  its  version,  both  agree 
substantially  with  the  Hebrew  Pentateuch. 

Moreover,  some  century  or  two  after  the  death  of  the 
last  of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  a  version  of  the  whole  Jew- 
ish Scriptures,  and  first  and  earliest  of  the  Pentateuch, 
was  published  in  Greek,  which  soon  passed  into  very 
general  use.  This  version  is  often  quoted  from,  in  the 
New  Testament.  Josephus  also,  the  Jewish  historian,  a 
little  after  the  time  of  Christ,  bears  testimony  to  the 
Mosaic  origin  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  gives  an  abstract 
of  its  history.  Lastly,  the  language  in  which  the  Penta- 
teuch is  written,  the  pure  old  Hebrew,  with  a  few  Egyp- 
tian words  intermixed,  the  intimate  acquaintance  which 
it  shows  its  author  to  have  possessed  with  the  countries, 
the  people,  and  the  customs  of  those  times,  especially  of 
Egypt,  as  it  certainly  was,  when  Moses  lived ;  and  the 
arrangement  of  the  subject  matter  contained  in  the  Pen- 
tateuch, together  with  the  fragmentary  character  of  much 
of  its  contents,  and  the  difference  of  style  perceptible 
in  the  earlier  and  the  later  portions  of  the  work, — all 
agree  precisely  with  what  we  might  look  for  in  such  a 
work,  if  Moses  were  the  author ;  and  all  these  circum- 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  197 

stances  are  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  supposition  of 
any  person's  being  the  author,  other  than  Moses. 

Against  this  strong  body  of  evidence  for  the  author- 
ship of  Moses,  there  is  no  contrary  and  contradictory 
evidence.  They  who  refuse  to  admit  the  authorship  of 
Moses,  base  their  refusal  mainly  on  the  groundless  as- 
sumption, that  a  miracle  is  impossible  ;  and  the  hypothe- 
ses they  advance  as  to  the  authorship  of  the  venerable 
Pentateuch,  are  as  various  as  are  their  names. 

In  addition  to  all  this  is  the  fact,  that  everywhere  in 
the  New  Testament,  the  Pentateuch  is  spoken  of  as  the 
law  ;  it  is  referred  to  as  the  work  of  Moses ;  he  is  said 
to  have  luritten  in  the  law  ;  and  the  facts  recorded,  and 
the  doctrines  taught  in  this  law  in  the  Pentateuch,  are 
referred  to  as  taught  by  Moses ;  and  they  are  argued 
from,  both  by  Christ  himself  and  by  his  Apostles,  as  un- 
doubtedly true,  and  as  given  by  inspiration  from  God ! 
To  all,  this  fact  must  carry  great  weight.  To  a  believer 
in  the  divine  mission  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  inspi- 
ration of  the  New  Testament  writers,  it  is  decisive. 

As  illustrations  of  this  point,  see  John  i.  17  :  *'  The  law 
was  given  by  Moses."  In  the  parable  of  the  rich  man 
and  Lazarus,  Christ  represents  Abraham  as  saying : 
"  They  have  Moses  and  the  prophets,  let  them  hear 
them."  "  If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
neither  will  they  be  persuaded,"  &c.  (Luke  xvi.  29,  31.) 
He  argues  that  the  dead  will  rise^  from  what  Moses  heard 
at  the  burning  hush.  (Luke  xx.  37  :  compare  Exod.  iii. 
1-6.  The  perpetuity  of  the  marriage  bond,  Christ  argues 
from  the  laiv  of  Moses.  (Matt.  xix.  4,  7,  8  :  compare 
Gen.  i.  27,  and  Deut.  xxiv.  1,  2,  3,  4.)  Christ  speaks 
(John  iii.  14)  of  the  lifting  wp  of  the  brazen  serpent  in  the 

^^^     Off   tiij<;    *      <*\. 

fUFIVBESITTl 


198  GENESIS  THE   WORK   OF  MOSES. 

tmlderness.  (Compare  Num.  xxi.  6,  9.)  Christ  refers  to 
Lofs  escape  from  Sodom.  (Luke  xvii.  28,  29 :  compare 
Gen.  xix.  24,  25.)  He  speaks  of  the  feeding  of  Israel 
with  manna,  in  the  wilderness,  as  an  undoubted  fact. 
(John  vi.  31,  32 :  compare  Exod.  xvi.  14,  15,  35.)  He 
asks  of  the  Jews,  "  Did  not  Moses  give  you  the  law  V 
(John  vii.  19.)  In  John  v.  46,  47,  Christ  says  to  thfe 
Jews,  "  Had  ye  believed  Moses,  ye  would  have  believed  me, 
for  he  wrote  of  me ;  but  if  ye  believe  not  his  writings.'^ 
This  is  decisive !  Eead  also  the  dying  speech  of  the 
martyr  Stephen  in  Acts,  7th  chap.  See  also  1  Cor.  x. 
2  :  compare  Exod.  xiv.  22,  and  2  Cor.  iii.  7, 13 :  compare 
Exod.  xxxiv.  29,  33. 

Such  was  the  estimation  in  which  the  New  Testament 
writers,  and  Jesus  Christ  himself,  held  the  Pentateuch,  as 
the  writing  of  Moses  and  the  word  of  God  ! 

Surely,  then,  if  any  historical  fact  can  be  established, 
it  is  an  established  fact,  that  Moses  himself  wrote  the 
Pentateuch.  But  if  Moses  wrote  the  Pentateuch,  then 
the  miracles  it  records  are  facts,  genuine  historical  facts, 
not  myths.  They  are  sober  truth,  not  fiction  ;  and  if  so, 
then  Moses,  like  all  true  prophets,  wrote  as  "/le  was 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghosts 

Against  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  Genesis,  however, 
many  objections  are  urged,  and  on  various  grounds. 
But  Genesis  is  included  in  the  Pentateuch  as  a  constitu- 
ent part  of  it ;  and  equally  with  the  other  four  of  these 
books  it  has,  from  the  first,  by  Jews  and  Christians  alike, 
been  attributed  to  Moses.  The  evidence  that  it  is  the 
work  of  the  Hebrew  lawgiver  is  clear  and  cogent ;  nor 
can  Genesis  be  assigned  to  any  other  person,  as  its  author. 
It   is  found  in  every  copy  of  the  Old  Testament,  in 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  199 

every  copy  of  the  Pentateucli,  and  in  every  version  of 
both !  Almost  as  often  as  the  other  four  books,  it  is  rec- 
ognized, appealed  to,  and  quoted  from,  in  the  later 
writings  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  in  those  of  the  'New. 
The  objections  now  urged  against  its  Mosaic  origin  are 
entirely  of  modern  growth ;  and  earnestly  and  ingeniously 
have  many  learned  men  labored  to  prove  it,  or  at  least 
the  first  eleven  chapters  of  it,  to  be  the  production  of  a 
time  much  later  than  the  age  of  Moses. 

The  reasons  for  these  strenuous  and  oft-repeated  exer- 
tions to  disprove  the  divine  origin  of  Genesis,  lie,  doubt- 
less, in  the  supposed  contrariety  of  its  statements  to  cer- 
tain alleged  facts  in  science;  and  in  its  undoubted 
contrariety  to  certain  favorite  hypotheses  of  scientific 
men. 

And  yet  it  requires  but  a  very  moderate  degree  of 
attention  to  the  subject  to  satisfy  a  candid  mind,  that 
Genesis,  just  as  we  now  have  it, — the  first  eleven  chapters 
no  less  than  the  rest — must  be  included  in  the  Pentateuch, 
as  part  and  parcel  of  the  work  of  Moses. 

Genesis  constitutes  an  appropriate,  and  indeed  an  in- 
dispensable introduction  to  the  other  books  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  to  the  whole  Bible ;  which  would  be  lamen- 
tably incomplete,  and  to  a  great  extent,  unintelligible 
without  it. 

The  argument  presented  by  the  learned  Eosenmiiller 
to  show  that  Genesis  was  written  by  Moses,  is  so  neat, 
and  so  brief,  that  I  here  give  it  entire,  especially  since  it 
is  conclusive  as  it  is  neat. 

He  first  exhibits  an  epitome  of  the  contents  of  Gene- 
sis, thus,  "The  first  book  of  the  Pentateuch,  known 
among  the  Jews  as  ni;a-a  (Barai-shith,)  by  the  first  He- 


200  GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES. 

brew  word  with  .which  it  opens,  and  by  the  Greeks  called 
Genesis,  from  its  contents,  which  tell  of  the  origin  of  all 
things,  constitutes  a  kind  of  preface  to  the  other  four 
books,  inasmuch  as  it  contains  the  things  necessary  to 
be  known,  for  understanding  what  is  related  in  the  other 
books,  and  what  is  there  taught  respecting  the  worship 
of  the  one  God ;  and  it  prepares  the  mind  for  compre- 
hending the  nature  and  the  bearing  (legum  complexus) 
of  the  laws  promulgated  in  those  four  books  following. 

From  the  commencement  of  all  things,  and  the  first 
beginnings  of  the  human  race,  this  book  traces  the  origin 
of  the  Hebrew  nation.  After  relating  the  dispersion  of 
mankind  over  all  the  earth,  the  book  restricts  the  history 
to  the  one  family  of  Heber,  and  selecting  Abraham  as 
the  hero,  (versoque  ad  Abrahamum  stylo,)  the  writer 
busies  himself  almost  exclusively,  in  the  affairs  of  this 
one  man,  and  his  descendants;  selecting  mostly  those 
occurrences  which  are  connected  with  the  magnificent 
and  reiterated  promises  of  God  made  to  those  ancestors 
of  the  Hebrew  nation,  and  to  those  actions  of  these  men, 
by  which  their  faith  in  God  is  illustrated.  He  points 
out  the  origin  of  the  customs  which  prevailed  among  the 
Hebrews,  (as  e.  g.  Gen.  xxxii.  32,  their  abstaining  from 
eating  certain  parts  of  an  animal.)  He  indicates,  also, 
the  origin  of  their  sacrifices  ;  and  he  gives  the  history  of 
their  rites^  as  e.  g.  circumcision. 

In  the  story  of  Joseph,  this  book  is  more  diffuse,  and 
it  closes  with  his  death  ;  so  that  the  Jewish  readers  might 
know  how  it  happened,  that  their  ancestors  had  settled 
in  Egypt. 

That  this  book  of  Genesis  was  written  hy  Moses^  and  by 
no  other  man,  is  argued,  because,  if  Moses  wrote  the 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  201 

other  four  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  this  first  book,  Gen- 
esis, must  also,  necessarily,  have  been  written  by  the 
very  same  author,  since  it  bears  the  closest  connection 
with  those  other  books ;  and  if  you  take  Genesis  away^ 
you  will  have  a  work  incomplete,  and  headless ;  a  work 
without  a  proper  commencement. 

Without  Genesis,  the  Hebrews  could  not  know  who 
was  the  God  of  their  fathers,  whom,  nevertheless,  they 
honored  in  various  modes,  as  their  king  and  their  law- 
giver !  Without  Genesis,  they  would  be  in  utter  igno- 
rance as  to  what  were  those  promises  made  by  God  to 
their  ancestors,  and  of  which  mention  is  frequently  made 
in  the  other  books  of  Moses ;  as  e.  g.  the  passages  found 
in  Exod.  vi.  4 ;  xiii.  5 ;  Deut.  i.  8  ;  ix.  5  ;  xxix.  13  ;  xxx. 
20 ;  xxxiv.  4 ;  refer  to  Gen.  xii.  7 ;  xiii.  15 ;  xv.  18 ; 
xvii.  8 ;  xxiv.  7 ;  xxvi.  3,  4;  1.  24.* 

When  inculcating  the  observance  of  the  primitive  law 
for  keeping  holy  the  weekly  Sabbath,  (Exod.  xx.  11, 
xxxi.  16,  17,)  Moses  does,  most  obviously,  refer  to  the 
narrative  given  in  Gen.  ii.  2,  3.  Moreover,  in  other  re- 
spects, such  an  agreement  may  be  noticed  between  Gen- 
esis and  the  other  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  as  would 
naturally  be  looked  for,  in  the  productions  of  one  and 
the  same  author.  As  illustrative  of  this,  compare  the 
removal  of  the  bones  of  Joseph  from  Egypt,  related  in 
Exod.  xiii.  19,  with  Gen.  1.  25.  Compare  also  Levit. 
xvii.  14,  with  Gen,  ix.  4 ;  and  compare  Numb,  xxiii.  24, 

*  How  great  must  be  the  force  of  a  preconceived  opinion,  when  De 
Wette,  with  these  facts  before  him,  ventures  the  assertion :  "  It  might 
with  equal  propriety  be  said  that  Genesis  was  designed  as  an  introduc- 
tion to  the  Psalms,  or  to  Ecclesiastes,  as  to  the  Levitical  law.  The  book 
simply  records  the  uncertain  and  mythical  history  of  the  Hebrew  race 
from  Adam  till  the  descent  to  Egypt."— Introd.  to  the  0.  T.  vol.  ii.  p.  31. 

9* 


202  GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES. 

and  also  Numb.  xxiv.  19,  with  Gen,  xlix.  9,  and  Deut. 
ii.  5,  with  Gen.  xxxvi.  8 :  also,  Deut.  ii.  12,  with  Gen. 
xiv.  6,  and  Gen.  xxxvi.  20 :  also,  Deut.  xxix.  28,  with 
Gen.  xix.  24. 

It  is  remarked  that  the  larger  part  of  these  passages  in 
Genesis,  referred  to  in  the  other  books  of  Moses,  are  found 
in  the  latter  portion  of  Genesis,  the  part  after  the  11th 
chapter  of  Genesis,  (but  yet  Exod.  xx.  11,  and  xxxi.  16, 
17,  refer  to  Gen.  ii.  2,  8,  and  the  prohibition  of  the  eat- 
ing of  blood,  Levit.  xvii.  14,  refers  to  Gen.  ix.  14,  &c.) 

From  this  circumstance  mainly,  certain  learned  critics 
have  advanced  the  idea,  that  the  first  ten  or  eleven  chap- 
ters of  Genesis,  are  the  production  of  a  much  later  age ; 
probably  about  the  time  of  the  captivity.  But  this  view 
can  by  no  means  be  sustained. 

As  this  is  a  point  of  vital  import,  I  beg  attention  to 
the  considerations  I  shall  present.  These  earlier  chap- 
ters constitute  an  indispensable  introduction  to  the  rest, 
which  cannot  be  understood  without  them. 

These  earlier  chapters,  also,  are  themselves  distinctly 
referred  to  in  several  passages  of  the  other  four  books  of 
the  Pentateuch,  as  well  as  in  the  later  books  of  the  Jew- 
ish Scriptures.  In  the  New  Testament,  also,  these  refer- 
ences to  Genesis,  and  to  the  contents  of  the  first  eleven 
chapters  thereof,  are  frequent,  distinct,  and  unequivocal ; 
rendering  it  certain  that  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles, 
and  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  documents,  re- 
ceived the  whole  book  of  Genesis  just  as  it  now  stands 
in  our  Bibles,  as  the  work  of  Moses,  and  an  inspired 
book.  If  the  New  Testament  is  an  inspired  book,  so 
also  must  the  whole  book  of  Genesis  be  inspired,  and  the 
production  of  Moses,  undoubtedly. 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  203 

Christ  himself^  "when  explaining  the  law  of  marriage^  in 
Matt.  xix.  4,  5,  refers  to  Gen.  i.  27,  and  Gen.  ii.  24,  and 
quotes  the  very  words.  In  Matt.  xxiv.  88,  39,  Christ  refers 
also  to  the  flood^  which  destroyed  all  living  creatures  on 
the  face  of  the  earth,  except  Noah,  and  those  with  him 
in  the  ark,  as  related  in  Gen.  7th  chapter,  compare  Gen. 
vi.  10-13. 

To  this  record  of  the  flood^  Peter  also  refers^  2  Pet.  ii.  5, 
and  2  Pet.  iii.  6. 

The  writer  to  the  Hebrews  refers^  in  chap.  xi.  8,  to  the 
creation  as  given,  Gen.  i.  1,  2 ;  and  in  Heb.  xi.  4,  ref- 
erence is  made  to  the  offering  presented  hy  Abel,  and  to  his 
murder  by  Cain,  as  related  in  Gen.  iv.  2-8.  The  transla- 
tion of  Enoch,  recorded  in  Gen.  v.  24,  is  mentioned  Heb. 
xi.  5,  and  is  also  referred  to  by  the  apostle  Jude,  (Jude 
ver.  14.)  Paul,  also,  in  his  letter  to  the  Eomans,  men- 
tions the  transgression  of  Adam,  the  progenitor  of  the  whole 
human  race,  (Rom.  v.  14,  16,  17,  18,  and  more  particu- 
larly still  in  1  Tim.  ii.  13,  14,)  *'  Adam  was  first  formed ; 
then  Eve :  and  Adam  luas  not  deceived,  but  the  woman,  being 
deceived,  was  in  the  transgression.''''  Here  reference  is  un- 
doubtedly made  to  Gen.  i.  27,  Gen.  ii.  7,  and  vers.  18,  20, 
22,  and  to  Gen.  iii.  1,  7.  Further  illustration  of  this  point 
were  superfluous.  If  the  New  Testament  can  be  authori- 
tative in  a  case  of  this  kind,  then  the  point  is  settled ; 
and  the  entire  book  of  Genesis,  the  earlier  no  less  than 
the  later  portion  of  it,  is  the  work  of  Moses,  and  is  an  in- 
spired document. 

It  is  demonstrable  that  under  the  general  designations, 
"  the  law,^^  "  the  law  of  Moses,""  kc,  so  often  occurring  in 
all  the  historical  books  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  in  the 
Psalms,  and  in  the  prophets,  Genesis,  no  less  than  the 


204  GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES. 

other  four  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  was  included.  To 
make  this  plain,  consult  the  following  passages  from 
these  later  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  wherein  various 
portions  of  Genesis  are  either  directly  quoted,  or  dis- 
tinctly referred  to.  Thus  Hos.  vi.  7,  "  They,  like  Adam, 
(in  our  version,  like  men,)  have  transgressed,"  &ic.,  see 
Job  xxxi.  33 :  compare  with  Gen.  iii.  9, 13.  Again,  with 
Psalm  xlvii.  9;  cv.  9,  42.  Isa.  xxix.  22;  Ixiii.  16. 
Ezek.  xxxiii.  24,  and  Micah  vii.  20 :  compare  Gen.  xii. 
1-3,  and  also  the  13th,  14th  and  17th  chapters  of  Genesis. 

Again,  compare  Joshua  xxiv.  3,  with  Gen.  xxxii. 
9;  xxvi.  3,  24.  Further,  compare  Isaiah  liv.  9,  and 
Ezek.  xiv.  14,  20,  with  Gen.  vi.  8,  and  vii.  6 ;  and 
again.  Gen.  viii.  20,  22.  See  also  Joshua  xxiv.  3,  4.  1 
Chron.  xvi.  16,  and  Psalm  cv.  9 ;  also  Jer.  xxxiii.  26 ; 
and  with  them  compare  Gen.  xv.  4,  5  ;  xvi.  2,  8.  Gen. 
xxi.  1,  4,  12 ;  chap.  xxv.  2,  3 ;  xxvi.  2,  4.  Compare 
also  Isa.  xli.  8,  and  2  Chron.  xx.  7,  with  Gen.  xviii.  17, 
18.  Gen.  xii.  2,  3  ;  xvii.  2, 4,  7 :  and  compare  also  James 
ii.  23.  Yet  again  with  Hosea  xii.  2,  3,  4, 12,  compare  Gen. 
xxv.  26;  xxxii.  24,  28,  and  xxviii.  5.  Still  further, 
compare  Hosea  i.  10,  with  Gen.  xxii.  17,  and  Gen.  xxxii. 
12  ;  and  compare  Hosea  xii.  4,  with  Gen.  xxxii.  28. 

To  one  who  will  examine  into  this  subject,  and  inspect 
the  passages  which  may  be  cited,  it  will  be  abundantly 
obvious,  that  in  nearly  all  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New,  Genesis — the  former,  no  less  than 
the  latter  portion  of  it — is  recognized  as  the  writing  of 
Moses  and  the  word  of  God. 

But  it  is  sometimes  boldly  contended  that  the  wJiole  of 
Genesis  is  not  the  work  of  Moses,  because, 

1st.  A  great  part  of  its  contents  are  of  such  a  charac- 


GENESIS  THE  WOKK  OF  MOSES.  205 

ter  tliat  Moses  could  not  have  written  it  of  his  own  knowl- 
edge. He  must  have  received  the  accounts  respecting 
the  creation,  and  respecting  persons  and  events  before 
the  deluge,  hy  tradition^  current  in  his  times,  and  sup- 
posed to  have  been  handed  down  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration :  or  else  from  old  fragmentary  written  documents 
relating  to  those  obscure  events.     And 

Because,  2d.  The  book  itself,  as  it  now  stands,  shows 
unmistakable  evidence  of  several  different  and  distinct 
documents  incorporated  together. 

This  last  hypothesis  let  us  first  examine,  for  much 
weight  has  of  late  years  been  attached  to  the  notion  that 
Genesis  is  composed,  to  a  great  extent,  of  pre-existing 
documents. 

The  celebrated  Yitringa  was  probably  one  of  the  first, 
if  not  the  very  first,  who  suggested  the  idea  of  older 
fragmentary  documents  having  been  used  in  the  com- 
pilation of  Genesis.  In  a  work  published  at  Brussels  in 
1753,  entitled,  "  Conjectures  sur  les  Memoir es  Originaux 
dont  il  paroit  que  Moyse  s'est  servi  pour  composer  le  livre  de 
QeneseJ^  &c.,  i.  e.  "  Conjectures  as  to  the  Original  Me- 
moirs of  which  Moses  availed  himself  in  composing  the 
book  of  Genesis,"  &c.,  by  Astruc,  this  conjecture  of  Yi- 
tringa's  was  fully  carried  out,  and  the  writer  reckons 
twelve  such  original  documents,  larger  or  smaller.  Eich- 
horn  enumerated  two  such  documents,  and  De  Wette 
contents  himself  with  two.  Other  learned  men  have 
advocated  this  notion ;  and  even  Pareau,  a  living  writer, 
and  a  distinguished  critic,  considers  it  as  "  proved  be- 
yond a  doubt,  that  the  book  of  Genesis  is  formed  of 
various  fragments,  written  by  divers  authors,  and  merely 
compiled  by  Moses,  and  thus  prefixed  to  his  own  history." 


20d  GENESIS  THE  "WORK  OF  MOSES. 

But  from  this  very  fact,  Pareau  derives  an  argument  for 
the  truth  and  fidelity  of  Genesis,  as  a  historical  work. 

The  arguments  on  which  rests  this  theory  of  older  frag- 
mentary documents  having  been  used  by  Moses  in  com- 
posing Genesis,  are  briefly  these : 

(1.)  Every  historian,  in  treating  of  times  long  ante- 
cedent to  his  own,  resorts  to  more  ancient  documents  as 
his  authority  ;  and  why  should  not  Moses  ? 

(2.)  It  is  entirely  incredible  that  such  lists  of  names 
and  dates  as  are  given  in  Genesis,  chapters  v.  vi.  x.  and 
xi.,  could  have  been  orally  perpetuated.  Brief  written 
documents,  or  memoranda,  seem  more  likely. 

(3.)  Genesis  contains  various  repetitions,  or  double 
narratives  of  the  same  early  events. 

(4.)  The  various  headings,  inscriptions,  or  titles,  found 
in  the  earlier  chapters  of  Genesis,  (see  ch.  ii.  4 ;  v.  1 ;  vi. 
9 ;  X.  1 ;  and  xi.  27,)  seem  to  authorize  the  idea,  that 
the  portions  so  headed  are  distinct  documents. 

(5.)  The  variations  of  style  perceptible  in  these  several 
documents,  sustain  this  idea.  The  style  is  mostly  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  Moses.  (Compare  Gen.  14th  ch.  and 
Gen.  23d  ch. :  compare  also  ch.  5th,  with  ch.  10th.) 

(6.)  Further  corroboration  is  lent  to  this  hypothesis, 
by  the  uniform  use  of  the  word  Jehovah^  as  the  name  of 
the  Supreme  Deity,  in  certain  of  these  passages  or  docu- 
ments ;  and  the  like  use  of  the  word  Elohim,  as  such 
name,  in  the  others. 

De  Wette  carries  out  this  idea,  and  divides  Genesis 
into  two  distinct  parts,  designated  as  the  Jehovah  docu- 
ment and  the  Elohim  document.  The  latter  he  regards 
as  the  chief,  or  original  work :  the  parts  in  which  the 
name  Jehovah  occurs,  he  deems  interpolations. 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  207 

As  specimens  of  these  two  alleged  different  original 
documents,  take  the  following.  As  a  part  of  the  Jehovah 
document^  in  which  the  name  Jehovah  occurs,  are  adduced, 
Gen.  vi.  5-7 ;  vii.  1-6.  As  a  part  of  the  Ulohirn  docu- 
ment, in  which  the  word  Elohim  occurs  as  the  name  of 
God,  see  Gen.  vi.  12-22. 

In  these  corresponding  passages,  the  same  event  is  re- 
lated ;  but  the  narratives  differ.  It  may  be  well  to  be 
reminded  that  when,  in  the  Hebrew  text,  the  word  Je- 
hovah occurs,  it  is  generally,  in  our  version,  rendered 
Lord,  and  printed  in  capital  letters ;  while  the  word 
Elohim  is  uniformly  translated  God. 

To  a  sober-minded  person,  who  has  no  favorite  theory 
to  sustain,  or  to  defend,  it  seems  marvellous  that  learned 
critics  should  have  spent  so  much  time  and  labor  in  the 
attempt  to  establish  this  theory :  the  evidence  is  not  suf- 
ficient to  sustain  it,  and  if  it  were,  no  result  of  any  impor- 
tance would  follow.  Most  assuredly  the  distinct  heading 
of  several  different  portions  of  the  work  (as  Gen.  ii.  4;  v.  1 ; 
vi.  9,  &c.)  does  not  prove  diversity  of  authorship ;  for  the 
peculiarity  and  the  importance  of  these  several  passages, 
which  are  chiefly  genealogical  tables,  may  well  demand 
separate  headings,  to  distinguish  them  respectively. 

Nor  can  the  so-called  repetitions  of  narratives  establish 
diversity  of  authorship. 

They  are  generally  introduced  as  a  fuller  account  with 
more  particulars  of  an  event  which  has,  in  more  general 
terms,  been  previously  stated ;  and  are  well  adapted  to 
convey  a  clearer,  because  a  more  precise  and  a  fuller 
idea  of  the  event  so  detailed.  As,  e.  g.  the  two  several 
accounts  of  the  creation  of  man,  as  found  Gen.  i.  27,  28, 
compared  with  Gen.  ii.  7,  and  verses  18-23. 


208  GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES. 

On  these  two  passages  a  recent  writer  has  remarked, 
(see  Dr.  J.  C.  Nott's  Two  Lectures,  pp.  59,  60,)  ''Here 
we  have  two  entirely  distinct  accounts  of  the  creation  of  man^ 
and  directly  contradicting  each  other. ^^ 

The  only  rational  explanation  of  these  discrepancies 
which  can  be  offered,  adds  this  writer,  is,  that  the  Book 
of  Genesis  is  nothing  more  than  an  assemblage  of  very 
ancient  fragments  (or  traditions,)  of  uncertain  origin^  put 
together  without  order,  and  consequently  of  no  historical 
value^  (p.  60.) 

A  rash  assertion  this,  and  totally  groundless.  The 
narratives  of  the  creation  of  man,  as  given  Gen.  i.  27,  28, 
and  again,  Gen.  ii.  7,  and  vers.  18, 23,  are  distinct,  certainly, 
but  not  contradictory.  The  narrative  in  the  first  chapter 
states  briefly  the  fact,  that  the  first  pair  of  the  human 
race,  man  and  woman  both,  were  created  by  God  on  the 
sixth  day.  But  after  the  close  of  the  sixth  day  the  work 
of  creation  was  ended,  as  expressed  by  the  strong  figure, 
— God  rested  on  the  seventh  day. 

The  second  chapter  relates  the  same  event,  viz.,  the 
creation  of  the  first  human  pair,  but  with  greater  minute- 
ness, and  with  sundry  particulars  as  to  the  mode  of  their 
creation  on  the  sixth  day,  and  their  immediate  location  in 
the  garden  of  Eden,  which  could  not  well  be  introduced 
in  the  brief,  general  account  given  in  the  first  chapter, 
which  was*  designed  to  teach  us  simply  the  fact,  that  the 
whole  material  universe  was  created  by  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham; and  that  at  some  undefined  period,  but  in  the  brief 
space  of  six  consecutive  days,  this  our  earth,  was  by  Him 
reduced  to  its  present  condition  of  sea  and  land, — sur- 
rounded by  the  atmosphere,  illumined  by  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars. — covered  with  its  luxuriant  vegetation,  and 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  209 

peopled  by  tlie  countless  tribes  of  living  occupants,  now 
swarming  in  its  waters,  roaming  in  its  forests,  and  bound- 
ing over  its  plains,  or  flying  through  tlie  yielding  air  ;  and 
that  on  the  sixth  day  man,  in  the  first  human  pair,  male 
and  female,  was  produced,  the  last  and  crowning  work 
of  God  on  earth. 

The  fact  of  the  creation  of  the  first  human  pair,  and  of 
their  creation  by  God  on  the  sixth  day,  is  alone  stated  in 
Genesis,  first  chapter. 

The  mode  of  their  creation,  and  the  habitation  assign- 
ed them,  are  detailed  in  Gen.  second  chap.  In  the  third 
chap,  we  are  told  that  God  had  planted,  or  arranged  a 
garden  in  Eden,  for  man's  accommodation ;  but  it  does 
not  necessarily  follow  that  this  was  done  after  the  close 
of  the  sixth  day.  When,  (as  is  stated  in  Gen.  i.  11,)  the 
earth  was  made  on  the  third  day,  to  bring  forth  herbage 
and  trees  of  every  variety,  what  should  forbid  the  gar- 
den spot  in  Eden,  designed  for  man's  first  abode,  to  pro- 
duce on  that  day,  all  the  varied  beauty  that  was  to  dis- 
tinguish it  ? 

Moreover,  if  early  on  the  morning  of  the  sixth  day, 
Adam  was  created  of  the  dust  of  the  earth,  (Gen.  ii.  7,) 
there  would  be  ample  time  before  night,  for  the  naming 
of  the  animals,  (Gen.  ii.  19,)  and  for  his  subsequent  deep 
sleep,  and  the  formation  of  Eve. 

But  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  to  suppose  that  this 
naming  of  the  animals  took  place  on  the  sixth  day,  or  be- 
fore the  formation  of  Eve,  even  though  it  is  said,  vers. 
20,  after  the  account  of  the  naming  of  the  animals,  "ybr 
Adam  there  was  not  found  a  help  meet  for  him"  any  more 
than  it  is  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  production  of  the 
beasts  of  the  field  out  of  the  ground,  and  of  the  fowl  of 


210  GENESIS  THE   WORK   OF  MOSES. 

the  air,  was  subsequent  to  the  creation  of  man  ;  because 
in  Gen.  ii.  19,  the  production  of  the  animals  is  again 
mentioned,  after  the  statement  of  the  fact,  that  no  suitable 
companion  for  man  was  found.  The  beasts  of  the  field 
were,  no  less  than  Adam,  created  on  the  sixth  day,  Gen. 
i.  24,  25,  and  may  possibly  have  been  created  after  man 
was  formed,  though  the  order  observed  in  the  first  chapter 
leads  us  to  suppose  that  the  beasts  of  the  field  were  pro- 
duced before  man.  But  the  fowls,  mentioned  in  Gen.  ii. 
19,  in  conjunction  with  the  beasts,  were  certainly  pro- 
duced on  the  fifth  day,  as  is  expressly  stated.  Gen.  i.  21 ; 
so  that  the  supplementary  narrative  given  in  Gen.  second 
chapter,  decides  nothing  as  to  the  order  of  creation,  but 
simply  states  the  reasons  why  certain  creative  acts  were 
put  forth.  For  man,  as  Lord  of  all  on  earth,  the  inferior 
animals  were  produced  ;  and  since  before  as  well  as  after 
their  creation,  their  nature  and  capabilities  were  all  ob- 
vious to  the  Creator's  eye, — as  none  of  the  inferior  crea- 
tures would  be  a  suitable  mate  for  man,  and  man  would 
see  this  when  all  should  pass  in  review  before  him ; 
therefore,  of  a  rib  taken  from  the  side  of  the  sleeping  man, 
God  formed  the  woman,  and  that  on  the  sixth  day; 
whether  that  forming  of  the  woman  preceded  or  follow- 
ed the  naming  of  the  animals.  The  view  here  presented 
of  the  explanatory  character,  of  the  supplementary  nar- 
rative found  in  Genesis,  is  in  accordance  with  the  judg- 
ment of  the  soundest  biblical  expositors.  Thus,  the 
learned  Dr.  Lightfoot,  (Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  11,)  when  speak- 
ing of  the  production  of  vegetation  on  the  third  day  of 
creation,  remarks, — "  This  day  Ood  plants  the  plcasayit 
garden  of  Uden,"  and  in  a  note,  he  adds,  "The  story  of 
Eden,  Gen.  ii.  9-14,  should,  in  proper  order,  lie  between 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  21l 

verses  12  and  13  of  this  first  chapter.  But  Moses  hath 
reserved  the  history  of  that,  to  be  handled  at  Adam's 
being  placed  in  it,  because  he  would  despatch  his  treatise  of 
generals^  before  he  comes  to  particulars.''^ 

This  one  remark  of  the  learned  old  Presbyterian  divine 
Lightfoot,  furnishes  a  complete  answer  to  all  the  objec- 
tions so  often  and  so  ostentatiously  urged  against  the 
double  narratives,  the  fuller  statement  of  particulars 
given  by  way  of  supplement  to  a  history  before  more 
briefly  recorded  in  Genesis,  as  e.  g.  in  this  double  narra- 
tive of  man's  creation,  as  found  Gen.  i.  27-28,  and  Gen. 
ii.  7,  8,  21,  22.  Moses  would  despatch  his  treatment  of 
generals,  before  he  comes  to  particulars.  It  is  the  natural 
course  to  pursue  ;  it  is  the  logical  order  of  arrangement. 

These  two  narratives  of  man's  creation  are  indeed 
separate  and  distinct,  but  ihei/ are  perfectly  harmonious  and 
consiste7it.  They  are  not  contradictory^  for  the  one  is  an 
amplification  of  the  other  :  it  is  explanatory  of  it.  And 
in  every  historical  work  we  open,  we  find,  towards  the 
closing  of  one  account,  a  statement,  in  general  terms,  of 
some  important  occurrence,  which  is  afterwards  related 
anew,  with  ampler  detail  of  particulars.  Of  this,  instan- 
ces almost  innumerable  might  be  cited.  So,  as  if  treat- 
ing of  one  of  a  number  of  quite  ordinary  cases  of  the 
kind,  as  a  thing  quite  natural,  and  to  be  expected.  Dr. 
Lightfoot's  opening  remark  (see  his  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  11,) 
on  the  2d  chapter  of  Genesis,  is,  "  This  chapter  is  a  par- 
ticularizing upon  some  generals  of  the  chapter  preceding.-'' 

The  various  double  narratives,  or  repetitions  of  the 
same  early  event,  as  observed  in  Genesis,  furnish,  there- 
fore, no  ground  of  objection  against  the  Mosaic  author- 
ship of  the  entire  book. 


212  GENESIS  THE   WORK   OF   MOSES. 

Again,  as  to  the  hypothesis  that  separate  fragmentary 
documents  must  have  been  used  in  the  compilation  of 
Genesis,  so  far  as  that  hypothesis  is  founded  on  the  use 
of  two  different  designations  for  the  Supreme  Being,  viz. 
Jehovah  in  some  passages,  and  Elohim  in  others,  it  may 
be  observed,  that  this,  although  a  somewhat  remarkable 
circumstance,  is  not  peculiar  to  Genesis,  nor  to  the  Pen- 
tateuch. It  is  not  unusual  for  the  same  writer  to  apply 
different  designations  to  the  same  subject,  in  different  por- 
tions of  the  same  work;  and  sometimes  to  use  these 
designations  indiscriminately.  This  may  be  noticed  in 
several  other  books,  also,  of  the  Old  Testament  itself 
For  instance  in  Jonah,  chap.  iv.  in  verses  1,  4,  the  word 
Jehovah  is  used  as  the  name  of  God ;  in  ver.  6,  he  is 
styled  Jehovah  Elohim,  the  Lord  God :  in  verses  7,  8, 
and  9,  Elohim  is  used ;  and  in  ver.  10,  Jehovah  is  again 
used.  And  yet  no  one  would  think  of  making  out,  from 
this  fact,  that  the  4th  chapter  of  Jonah  is  made  up  of 
several  distinct  documents,  the  work  of  different  authors. 

But  the  book  of  Genesis  does  itself  furnish  materials  for 
the  refutation  of  this  theory  of  two  fragmentary  docu- 
ments, distinguished  by  the  exclusive  use  of  the  word 
Jehovah  in  the  one,  and  Elohim  in  the  other:  for,  in  the 
narrative  occupying  the  whole  passage  from  Gen.  ii.  4, 
to  the  end  of  chapter  iii.,  the  compound  designation, 
Jehovah  Elohim  is  used.  And  yet,  in  the  midst  of  the 
use  of  this  compound  name,  Elohim  is  three  times  used 
by  itself,  in  Gen.  iii.  1, 3,  5  ;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  this 
same  book,  from  and  after  chap,  xxviii.  ver.  10,  the  names 
of  Elohim,  and  Jehovah,  are  used  interchangeably  and 
indiscriminately.  This  theory  of  a  Jehovah  document, 
and  an  Elohim  document,  is  therefore  unfounded. 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  213 

But  even  if  this  theory  were  unanswerably  demonstra- 
ted, if  it  were  proved  beyond  successful  contradiction, 
that  the  entire  book  of  Genesis  is  a  mere  comjjilation  of 
fragmentary  documents,  or  of  such  venerable  documents 
combined  with  oral  traditions  interwoven  with  them,  this 
would  not  affect  the  genuineness,  nor  detract  from  the 
value,  of  the  book,  as  a  work  compiled  by  Moses ;  nor 
would  it  impair  its  authority  as  a  true  history  in  all  par- 
ticulars, a  trustworthy  document  in  all  points.  If  with 
the  other  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  Genesis  tvas  delivered 
to  the  Jews  by  Moses,  that  fact  stamps  the  whole  booh  as  au- 
thentic, and  authoritative.  The  character  of  Moses  as  an 
accurate  historian,  an  upright  man,  and  a  prophet  com- 
missioned of  God,  is  a  full  guarantee,  for  the  truth  and 
accuracy  of  all  that  he  solemnly  delivered  to  the  Jews,  to 
be  held  as  sacred  books.  Whether  a  compilation,  or  an 
original  composition  from  his  own  pen,  matters  not, — de- 
livered to  the  Jews  by  Moses,  it  is  sacred,  it  is  inspired,  it 
forms  a  part  of  "  the  law  of  Moses ^ 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  all  the  objections  urged 
against  the  genuineness  of  Genesis  as  a  work  of  Moses, 
are  based  on  the  assumption  that  the  author  was  not  in- 
spired :  that  in  writing  this  book,  he  must  have  sought 
his  materials,  and  gained  his  information  solely  from 
sources  accessible  to  any  writer  of  the  times. 

Admit  the  inspiration  of  Moses,  and  all  these  objections 
die  at  once. 

Hence  the  difficulty  raised  on  the  ground  of  the  im- 
possibility that  the  writer  of  this  book  could  of  his  oion 
knowledge,  have  recorded  events  occurring  at  so  remote  a 
period,  as  the  deluge,  and  even  in  the  family  of  Adam ; 
and  that  therefore  he  must  have  collected  old  traditions, 


214  GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF   MOSES. 

and  even  ancient  written  documents,  since  the  long  lists 
of  names  and  dates  in  the  geological  tables,  could  not 
possibly  have  been  perpetuated  by  mere  oral  tradition,  is 
very  easily  set  aside. 

Moses  gave  to  the  Jews  the  whole  Pentateuch,  includ- 
ing Genesis,  as  a  document  truthful  and  trustworthy ;  as 
a  document  essential  to  the  right  understanding  of  the 
character  and  attributes  of  the  God  of  their  fathers ;  and 
as  necessary  to  show  them  the  relation  they  bore  to  the 
only  true  God,  and  the  service  they  were  required  to 
render  to  Him.  In  all  this,  Moses  claimed  to  be  acting 
under  commission  from  the  living  God ;  the  credentials 
of  his  mission  being  set  forth  in  the  wonderful  events  re- 
corded in  those  books,  the  truth  of  which  record  was 
known  to  the  whole  nation. 

On  the  truth  of  these  recorded  facts,  Moses  rested  his 
high  claim. 

On  the  universal  conviction,  throughout  the  whole  na- 
tion, that  these  facts  were  all  true,  known  by  almost  every 
individual  to  be  true,  just  as  therein  recorded,  that  high 
claim  of  Moses  was  admitted,  and  those  books  were  re- 
ceived as  a  message  from  God.  As  such,  they  were  care- 
fully treasured  up.  A  copy  was  kept,  with  the  ark,  in 
the  very  sanctuary  of  the  nation. 

Numerous  other  copies  were  made  with  extreme  care, 
and  were  used  frequently  in  the  public  reading  of  the 
laws  and  precepts  therein  contained. 

These  laws,  and  the  institutions  set  forth  in  this  book, 
were  observed,  and  have  been  observed  among  the  Jews 
in  all  ages,  since  Moses  to  the  present  day,  notwithstand- 
ing the  many  eventful  changes  in  their  history. 

The  uniform  testimony  of  their  national  traditions. 


GENESIS  THE   WORK  OF  MOSES.  215 

corroborates  the  testimony  of  all  their  sacred  writings, 
that  Moses  was  God's  chosen  servant ;  and  that,  in  giving 
them  the  Pentateuch,  Genesis  included,  he  only  presented 
to  them,  in  a  permanent  form,  a  standard  copy  of  the  doc- 
trines taught,  and  the  laws  appointed  by  Jehovah,  the 
God  of  their  fathers !  His  official  presentation  of  Gene- 
sis to  the  people  of  Israel,  was  an  open  assertion  that  it 
is  truth,  and  inspired  of  God !  As  such,  they  admitted 
it ;  as  such,  they  have  always  esteemed  it  to  this  day. 

Whether,  therefore,  the  earlier  events  recorded  in  the 
first  eleven  chapters  of  Genesis,  viz.,  the  creation,  the 
occurrences  in  the  family  of  Adam,  the  translation  of 
Enoch,  the  flood,  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  Babel,  the 
dispersion  of  mankind,  &c.,  down  to  the  calling  of  Abra- 
ham, were  gathered  by  Moses  from  the  traditions  handed 
down  through  the  patriarchs,  or  were  contained  in  old 
written  documents,  brief  historical  fragments,  which  he 
collected,  and  reduced  to  order,  or  whether  these  early 
events  were  before  unknown  until  communicated  to 
Moses  by  immediate  inspiration,  is  of  but  very  little 
consequence.  The  decision  of  this  point  cannot  affect 
the  argument  for  the  authorship  of  Genesis,  nor  that  for 
its  truth  in  every  point.  The  character  of  Moses  as  a 
prophet,  and  his  high  commission  as  the  agent  through 
whom  God  communicated  His  will  to  Israel,  are  a  full 
guarantee  for  the  truth  of  every  statement  found  in  Gen- 
esis, as  well  as  for  the  authority  of  every  doctrine,  and 
every  law  laid  doAvn  in  the  other  four  books  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch. 

If  Moses  compiled  Genesis,  either  wholly  or  in  part, 
from  previously  existing  documents,  he  was  divinely  in- 
spired to  select,  arrange,  to  alter,  expunge,  or  add  to 


216  GENESIS  THE   WORK  OF   MOSES. 

those  documents,  as  truth  demanded.  If  he  received  the 
facts  merely  as  handed  down  by  oral  tradition,  he  was, 
in  like  manner,  guided  of  God  to  receive  and  to  record 
the  truth,  tlie  whole  truth  needed  in  the  case,  and  nothing 
hut  the  truth!  And  if  Moses  wrote  the  whole  as  com- 
municated directly  to  him  by  inspiration  alone,  then  the 
very  truth  necessary  to  be  known  in  the  case,  and  the 
truth  alone,  pure  and  free  from  all  admixture  of  error, 
must  have  been  the  result  of  his  authorship ! 

All  that  could  have  been  handed  down  by  tradition^  it 
would  have  been  easy  for  Moses  to  obtain,  in  a  direct 
line  from  Adam  himself,  and  that  through  a  very  small 
number  of  relaters. 

From  Adam  to  Noah,  a  period  of  about  1656  years, 
but  one  intermediate  link  was  necessary. 

Methuselah  lived  to  converse  with  both  Adam  and 
Noah;  and  Lamech,  the  father  of  Noah,  was  fifty-six 
years  old  when  Adam  died. 

Shem  connected  Noah  with  Abraham,  having  lived  to 
converse  with  both,  as  Isaac  also  did  with  Abraham  and 
with  Joseph ;  and  from  Joseph  these  traditions  could  be 
easily  conveyed  to  Moses  by  Amram,  who  was  contem- 
porary with  Joseph.  (See  Dr.  A.  Clarke's  preface  to  his 
Commentary  on  Genesis.) 

Six  persons,  then,  between  Adam  and  Moses,  would 
have  been  sufficient  to  convey  to  Moses  traditions  from 
the  very  origin  of  the  human  race. 

Abundant  facilities,  therefore,  existed  for  correct  tradi- 
tion, orally  perpetuated,  from  the  very  first,  down  to  the 
great  Hebrew  lawgiver. 

But  tradition^  unaided  by  direct  revelation  from  God,  could 
not  possibly  have  supplied  all  that  is  recorded  in  Genesis. 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  217 

The  original  chaotic  condition  of  the  elements,  and  their 
subsequent  reduction  to  the  present  order  of  things ;  the 
successive  order  observed  in  the  production  of  light,  of 
sea,  and  of  dry  land;  of  vegetable  forms,  and  of  living 
animals,  swarming  in  the  air,  the  water,  and  on  the  dry 
land ;  the  mode  in  which,  and  the  time  when  Adam 
was  formed,  and  subsequently  Eve :  all  this  must  have 
been  as  unknown  to  Adam  himself,  without  a  revelation 
from  God,  as  it  would  be  to  us.  For  plainly,  Adam 
could  not,  from  his  own  consciousness  merely,  after  his 
creation,  nor  from  his  observation  on  events  thereafter 
occurring,  have  ascertained  the  mode  of  his  own  creation, 
from  the  dust  of  the  earth  ;  nor  the  mode  or  the  successive 
order  in  which  other  objects  around  him  had  been  pro- 
duced, any  more  than  Professor  Agassiz,  or  any  other 
naturalist,  however  distinguished  or  skilful  he  may  be, 
can,  from  the  structure,  the  habits  or  the  locality  of  ani- 
mals as  observed  now,  ascertain  the  manner,  the  time  or 
the  place  of  their  original  production. 

The  origin  of  things  lies  back  of  human  observation, 
human  experience,  and  human  consciousness ;  and  to  pre- 
tend to  adduce  demonstration^  on  points  so  remote  and  so 
inscrutable,  is  positively  absurd.  The  knowledge  of  the 
origin  of  things,  must  be  learnt  by  immediate  revelation 
from  God,  or  it  must  forever  remain  unknown. 

All  these,  and  similar  facts,  if  included  in  patriarchal 
tradition,  (which  is  scarcely  probable,)  must  have  been  re- 
vealed to  Adam  by  his  Maker.  Still,  even  in  that  case, 
the  spirit  of  inspiration  would  have  been  necessary  for 
Moses,  {and  he  had  it,)  to  preserve  him  from  error,  in 
stating  the  facts  he  records,  however  these  facts  might 
have  reached  him.    We  receive  Genesis  as  a  true  history, 

10 


218  GENESIS  THE  WORK   OF   MOSES. 

on  the  authority  of  Moses,  who  selected  and  arranged  its 
contents,  and  gave  it  to  the  Jews.  For  Moses  was  a  man, 
the  whole  of  whose  illustrious  career  proclaimed  him 
commissioned  from  the  God  of  nature,  to  make  known  to 
the  Jews  and  to  mankind  these  truths,  otherwise  unat- 
tainable, as  well  as  to  promulgate  the  laws  of  the  Jewish 
worship,  and  the  decalogue^  that  matchless  rule  of  duty  to 
all  mankind. 

We  do,  therefore,  still  maintain  the  Mosaic  origin,  and 
the  divine  authority  of  Genesis,  no  less  than  of  the  other 
books  of  the  Pentateuch. 

As  such  the  Jews  have  always  esteemed  it.  It  is  found 
in  every  copy  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  in  the  Samaritan 
Pentateuch,  and  in  Qwevy  ancient  version  of  the  Jewish 
Scriptures. 

Genesis  is  indispensable  as  an  introduction  to  the  other 
books  of  the  Pentateuch,  and,  indeed,  to  all  the  others 
of  the  sacred  writings.  Without  Genesis,  they  would  be 
almost  unintelligible. 

If  Genesis  were  totally  lost,  no  existing  documents 
could  supply  its  place. 

Truths,  now  generally  admitted  as  incontrovertible, 
because  taught  in  Genesis,  would  be  to  us  lost,  and  un- 
recoverable ;  or  if  remembered,  they  would  be  held  on 
doubtful  authority,  unsustained  by  sufficient  evidence. 

Genesis,  from  the  very  earliest  portions  of  it,  is  re- 
ferred to ;  the  statements  it  contains  are  recognized  as 
true,  and  they  are  assumed  as  the  basis  of  argument ; 
and  the  very  language  of  Genesis  is  quoted  again  and 
again,  in  nearly  every  book  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
of  the  New ;  and  this  is  so  done,  as  to  show  that  Gene- 
sis was,  by  all  these  sacred  writers,  regarded  as  a  part 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF   MOSES.  219 

of  the  writings  of  Moses,  and  a  document  of  revealed 
truth. 

Against  this  strong  array  of  evidence,  the  counter 
arguments  are  few  and  feeble.  The  alleged  impossibility 
of  its  Mosaic  origin,  on  the  ground  that  the  miracles  it 
records  are  fables,  because  a  miracle  is  impossible,  and  be- 
cause it  takes  a  long  course  of  ages  to  introduce  the 
rumor  of  such  prodigies  into  popular  belief  and  popular 
tradition,  is  a  mere  assumption,  absolutely  atheistic  in  its 
origin,  and  unphilosophical  in  its  nature;  for  it  involves 
a  petitio  principii ;  it  is,  in  fact,  a  mere  begging  of  the 
question  at  issue. 

The  objections  based  on  the  fragmentary  character  of 
certain  portions  of  the  Hebrew  Pentateuch,  especially 
of  Genesis,  and  on  the  traditionary  character  of  certain 
portions  of  its  contents,  are  utterly  worthless  ;  and  for  the 
very  plain  reason,  that  the  publisher  of  a  document  is 
not  necessarily  the  original  composer  of  every  sentence 
it  contains.  The  act  of  publishing  a  work  endorses  its 
contents,  whether  historical  or  didactic,  with  the  whole 
authority  of  the  publisher.  That  Moses  actually  pub- 
lished, i.  e.  openly  delivered  to  the  Jews,  the  book  of 
Genesis,  no  less  than  the  other  four  books  of  the  Pen- 
tateuch, as  forming,  together,  the  one  authoritative  doc- 
ument, containing  the  truths,  the  doctrines  and  the 
laws  which  Jehovah  himself  directed  him  to  communi- 
cate to  them,  has  been  abundantly  proved.  (See  Deut. 
xxxi.  9-13,  and  also  verses  22-26.)  That  official  act 
— of  so  delivering  this  book  to  the  Jews, — pledged  the 
character  of  Moses  as  a  man,  and  his  authority  as  an  in- 
spired prophet,  to  the  truth  of  all  contained  in  the  entire  doc- 
um^ent,  from  first  to  last.      A  pledge  unaffected  by  the 


220  GENESIS  THE   WORK   OF   MOSES. 

mode  in  which  he  might  have  obtained,  originally,  pos- 
session of  these  facts  and  statements ;  whether  by  direct 
revelation  to  his  own  mind,  or  by  the  diligent  collection 
and  collation  of  oral  traditions,  by  means  of  ancient 
documents  of  written  fragmentary  history. 

As  an  inspired  prophet,  Moses  was  guided  to  select 
and  arrange,  to  write  and  to  publish  the  truth,  and  the 
truth  alone,  whether  revealed  to  him  in  visions  and 
dreams,  or  inward  suggestions  from  God's  Holy  Spirit, 
or  gathered  from  patriarchal  traditions,  orally  perpetu- 
ated ;  or  found  by  him  in  old  written  documents ; 
whether  two  chiefly — the  Jehovah  document  and  the 
Elohim  document,  as  Eichhorn  supposed  and  as  De 
Wette  contended;  or  whether  there  are  a  dozen  such 
original  documents,  used  in  the  compilation,  as  Astruc 
conjectured  in  1753.  However  its  materials  may  have 
been  derived,  matters  not. 

Moses  delivered  Genesis  to  the  Jews  as  a  part  of  God's 
message  to  them.  For  us,  that  is  enough.  If  Moses  de- 
livered Genesis  to  iJie  Jewish  churchy  in  the  wilderness^  then 
Genesis  must  be  an  inspired  book,  and  true,  every  part  of  it  J 

This  argument,  standing  as  it  does,  without  an  objec- 
tion that  will  bear  a  moment's  calm  examination,  is  per- 
fectly conclusive. 

The  manner  in  which  Christ  speaks  of  Moses,  and  of 
some  of  the  most  marvellous  of  the  events  recorded  in 
Genesis,  would,  in  the  estimation  of  every  sober-minded 
inquirer,  settle  this  question  fully  and  forever,  notwith- 
standing all  the  subtle  arguments  of  Strauss,  and  the  bold 
assertions  of  De  Wette,  echoed  among  us  here  by  the 
ephemeral  writers  of  our  day. 

The  question  of  the  Mosaic  authorship,  and  the  in- 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  221 

spired  character  of  the  book  of  Grenesis,  ought  to  be  re- 
garded as  forever  settled. 

It  is  incomparably  more  likely  that  objections  now 
raised  against  the  authenticity  of  Genesis,  and  the  whole 
Pentateuch,  and  against  the  genuineness  of  any  part  of 
it,  as  the  work  of  Moses,  spring  from  the  prejudices  of 
the  objector,  and  from  the  ignorance  on  many  essential 
points  bearing  on  the  subject,  which  at  this  great  dis- 
tance of  time,  TYiust  inevitably  attach  to  even  the  acutest, 
the  most  industrious,  and  the  most  profoundly  learned 
among  these  objectors,  than  that  a  whole  people  should 
have  received  such  a  book  as  the  Pentateuch,  the  stan- 
dard of  their  religious  faith,  and  the  statute-book  of  their 
nation  and  of  their  land,  and  should  have  held  it  in  sa- 
cred estimation  through  the  whole  long  period  of  their 
national  existence,  about  1500  years,  nay,  for  thirty-five 
centuries,  reckoning  to  the  present  time,  as  the  work  of 
their  great  Lawgiver,  and  should  all  this  time  have  reve- 
rently obeyed  it  as  such,  while  yet,  all  the  time,  even 
from  the  very  first,  they  have  been  in  error  as  to  its  ori- 
gin !  The  thing  is  incredible  !  The  supposition  of  it  is 
palpably  absurd ! 

It  is  an  interesting  fact,  and  strongly  corroborative  of 
the  foregoing  argument  for  the  Mosaic  origin  of  Genesis, 
that  by  many  distinguished  writers  of  pagan  antiquity^  Mo- 
ses is  alluded  to,  and  sometimes  designated  by  name,  as 
the  great  original  Lawgiver  of  the  Jews,  and  the  most 
prominent  among  the  ivriters  of  their  sacred  hoolcs  I  The 
testimony  of  these  ancient  authors  is  the  more  important, 
because  they  were,  almost  without  exception,  prejudiced, 
not  in  favor  of  the  Jews,  but  against  them,  their  religion 
and  their  laws. 


222  GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES. 

Thus  Josephus,  in  his  work  against  Apion,  (lib.  i.  §  26,) 
quotes  passages  from  the  works  of  Manetho,  (the  author 
who  furnishes  the  famous  list  of  Egyptian  kings  and  dy- 
nasties,) and  also  from  Cheremon,  Apollonius,  and  Ly- 
simmachus,  besides  some  other  ancient  writers,  Greek 
and  Egyptian  both,  works  extant  in  his  day,  though  now 
lost.  The  passages  thus  quoted  by  Josephus,  agree  in 
admitting  that  Moses  was  the  leader  of  the  Jews,  when 
they  departed  from  Egypt ;  and  that  he  was  the  founder 
of  their  laws. 

We  may  be  certain  that  Josephus  quotes  these  passa- 
ges correctly,  because  they  contain,  also,  insinuations 
highly  discreditable  to  the  Jews.  (See  also  Josephus, 
lib.  i.  §  32  and  §  34.  See  also  Bishop  Newton  on  Moses 
and  his  writings.) 

Eusebius  also  (Proep.  Evang.  lib.  ix.  chap.  26,  29)  pro- 
duces passages  of  like  import  from  Eupolemus  and  Ar- 
topanas. 

Strabo,  the  Geographer,  also,  (Geog.  lib.  xv.,)  gives  an 
account  of  the  law  of  Moses  as  forbidding  images,  and 
limiting  worship  to  one  Invisible  Being.  (See  also  "War- 
burton's  Div.  Leg.  vol.  i. ;  and  Leland  against  Morgan.) 

Celsus,  also,  refers  to  this  very  passage  in  Strabo,  and 
frequently  mentions  Moses ;  and  alludes  to  various  cir- 
cumstances in  the  Jewish  history,  showing  that  he  was 
familiar  with  it. 

Justin  (from  Trogus  Pompoius,)  tells  us  that  Moses, 
being  driven  from  Egypt,  led  a  band  of  exiles,  and  en- 
camped at  Mount  Sinai,  and  there  consecrated  the  seventh 
day  a  sacred  solemnity ;  or,  as  he  calls'  it,  a  perpetual 
fast.     (Just.  Hist.  lib.  36.  c.  ii.) 

Pliny  the  Elder  (Hist.  Nat.  lib.  30,  c.  i.)  speaks  of 


GENESIS  THE  WORK  OF  MOSES.  223 

Moses  as  an  eminent  magician :  referring,  undoubtedly, 
to  the  miracles  he  wrought. 

Tacitus  mentions  Moses  as  one  of  the  exiles  from 
Egypt,  who  persuaded  his  companions  to  follow  him  as  a 
celestial  guide.  He  notices  his  journeyings  in  the  wil- 
derness, the  relief  of  the  people's  thirst,  and  their  receiv- 
ing laivs  from  Moses.     (Tac.  Hist.  lib.  v.  c.  8,  4.) 

Juvenal  mentions  Moses  a5  the  author  of  a  volume  pre- 
served with  great  care  among  the  Jews,  and  in  which  the 
worship  of  images,  and  the  eating  of  swine's  flesh  were 
forbidden,  and  in  which  circumcision  and  the  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  are  enjoined.     (Juv.  Sat.  xiv.  v.  96,  106.) 

Longinus  cites  Moses  as  the  lawgiver  of  the  Jews;  and 
he  quotes  from  Gen.  i.  2,  ''  Ood  said.  Let  there  he  lights  and 
there  was  llght,^^  as  a  specimen  of  the  true  sublime. 
(Long,  de  Sublim.  §  9.) 

Numenius,  a  Pythagorean  philosopher  of  Apamea,  is 
quoted  both  by  Eusebius  (Prsepar.  Evang.  lib.  ix.  sec.  xi. 
10)  and  by  Origen,  (Orig.  cont.  Cels.  lib.  iv.,)  as  speak- 
ing of  Moses  by  the  name  of  Mus^eus,  as  a  leader  of  the 
Jews,  who,  by  his  prayers,  brought  dreadful  calamities 
upon  Egypt.  This  Numenius  it  is,  who  is  reported  to 
have  said  that  "  Plato  was  only  Moses  speaking  Greeks 
(See  Doddridge's  Lectures :  also  Lardner's  Testimony, 
vol.  iii.) 

Josephus,  in  his  catalogue  of  Jewish  sacred  books, 
expressly  mentions  the  Pentateuch,  the  five  books,  as 
the  work  of  Moses. 

Philo,  an  Egyptian  Jew,  a  little  posterior  to  Josephus, 
acknowledged  as  canonical  no  other  books  than  those 
contained  in  the  Hebrew  Bible,  including  the  Pentateuch. 
Philo  was  a  cool-headed  philosopher. 


224  GENESIS  THE  WORK   OF   MOSES. 

Porpliyry,  an  acute,  learned,  and  bitter  enemy  of 
Christianity,  admitted  the  genuineness  of  the  Pentateuch, 
and  acknowledged  that  Moses  ivas  prior  to  the  Phoenician 
historiaiij  Sanconiathon,  who  flourished  before  the  Trojan 
war. 

And  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that,  amid  all  the  disputes 
that  arose  in  the  first  four  centuries  of  the  Christian  sera, 
between  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of  the  gospel,  the 
genuineness  of  the  Pentateuch,  as  the  writing  of  Moses, 
seems  never  to  have  been  called  in  question.  Even  the 
Apostate,  Julian  the  Emperor,  admitted  the  authority  of 
the  books  of  Moses  I  These  objections  fade  away  and 
disappear,  as  you  advance  towards  the  time  of  Moses. 
They  are  of  modern  growth  exclusively. 

But  we  are  told  that  these,  and  other  objections  that 
are  now  put  forth  with  a  triumphant  air,  spring  from  the 
modern  advance  in  science.  So  be  it,  then !  Base  your 
objections  on  scientific  ground  exclusively,  and  on  that 
ground  the  friends  of  the  Bible  and  of  Moses  will  cheer- 
fully meet  them. 

But  on  the  ground  of  criticism  fairly  applied  to  the 
Pentateuch,  as  an  ancient  document,  attributed  from  the 
very  first  to  Moses,  the  Jewish  lawgiver,  as  its  author, 
the  evidence  is  all  against  the  objector.  There  is  not 
evidence  so  full,  so  appropriate,  so  conclusive  for  the 
genuineness  of  the  works  of  Herodotus,  of  the  annals  of 
Tacitus,  nor  even  of  the  Commentaries  of  C^Bsar,  nor  for 
the  work  attributed  to  any  ancient  author, — no,  not  by 
a  vast  deal, — that  there  is  for  the  genuineness  of  the 
whole  Pentateuch,  as  the  work  of  Moses.  Whether  en- 
tirely the  composition  of  his  own  pen,  or  partly  made  up 
of  ancient  traditions  collected  by  him,  or  of  old  historical 


GENESIS  THE  WOEK  OF  MOSES.  225 

fragmentary  documents  compiled,  collated,  and  incorpo- 
rated into  the  work,  matters  not.  Genesis,  together  with 
the  other  four  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  was  by  Moses, 
an  inspired  prophet,  publicly  delivered  to  the  Jewish  na- 
tion as  a  message  from  God.  As  such  it  was  received. 
As  such  it  has  been  preserved,  revered,  and  honored  by 
them  to  this  day.  As  such  it  was  recognized  by  Jesus 
Christ  and  his  Apostles. 

The  genuineness  of  the  book  of  Genesis  as  the  work 
of  Moses,  is,  then,  beyond  rational  doubt.  And,  if  a 
genuine  work  of  Moses,  an  inspired  hooh,  a  revelation  from 
Godj  it  must  he  / 

10* 


'^^ 


LECTUKE   VI. 

CREATION    IN    SIX    DAYS. 

ExoD.  XX.  11.—"  In  six  days  Jehovah  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea, 
and  all  that  in  them  is." 

By  the  Israelites  as  they  lay  encamped  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Sinai,  this  brief  sentence  was  heard  sounding 
among  the  clouds,  and  the  lightnings  that  flashed  around 
that  mountain's  lofty  summit :  heard  in  the  awful  tones 
of  Jehovah's  own  voice,  as  he  spake,  in  the  hearing  of  the 
entire  people,  all  the  words  of  the  ten  commandments, — 
the  one  supreme  law,  for  the  regulation  of  the  conduct  of 
man,  wherever  found,  in  all  his  relations  to  God,  to  his 
fellow-men,  and  to  himself.  These  words  are  a  history  in 
miniature^  of  this  world^s  creation  I 

They  were  uttered,  and  they  are  recorded,  as  the 
reason  for  the  institution  of  the  weekly  Sahbath,  and  they 
present  the  one  and  original  ground  for  the  observance^  by 
maUj  of  one  day ^  for  restj  after  every  six  days'  toil.  "  Be- 
member  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy  ;  for^  in  six  days  Je- 
hovah made  heaven  and  earthy  the  sea  and  all  that  in  them  is  ; 
and  rested  the  seventh  day ;  wherefore^  Jehovah  blessed 
THE  Sabbath  day,  and  hallowed  it  I 

Every  Sabbath  day  you  hear  this  declaration  read,  in 
the  solemn  convocation  of  the  worshipers  of  God.    In 


CKEATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  227 

cbildhood,  you  committed  it  to  memory.  It  is  taught  to 
your  children.  It  is  read  in  thousands  of  assemblies  con- 
vened for  the  worship  of  God,  every  week :  and  thousands 
and  thousands  of  children,  in  every  country  of  Christen- 
dom, and  at  scores  of  missionary  stations  in  almost  every 
part  of  the  heathen  world,  are  taught  to  repeat  these 
words  as  true ;  sacredly  true ;  beyond  a  doubt  true.  Is 
the  assertion  herein  contained  really  true  ?  And  if  so,  in 
what  sense  is  it  true  f 

Such  are  the  points  I  propose  now  to  discuss. 

If  the  Bible  be  from  God,  as  I  have  endeavored  briefly 
to  show,  then  the  fourth  commandment  contains,  in  these 
words,  a  true  account  of  the  creation  of  this  world.  If 
so,  and  if  we  can  ascertain  the  genuine  meaning  of  these 
words,  we  have  the  truth  on  this  great  subject. 

Now  certain  it  is,  that  all  truth,  like  its  author  and  its 
original  fountain,  God,  is  immutable,  eternal,  and  in- 
variably consistent  with  itself.  No  two  truths  can  pos- 
sibly be  contradictory  of  each  other.  If,  then,  I  have 
found  one  truth^  distinctly  marked,  and  fully  proved,  I 
may  safely  lay  that  one  truth  up,  in  my  heart  of  hearts, 
as  a  jewel  of  priceless  value,  durable,  incorruptible,  and 
beyond  the  reach  of  change. 

Ten  thousand  difficulties  may  be  thrown  around  it. 
Its  bearings  upon,  and  even  its  consistency  with,  other 
known  truths,  may  be  obscure,  and  beyond  my  ken. 
Yet,  if  it  be  a  truth,  it  is  connected  with  all  other  truths, 
and  it  is  perfectly  consistent  with  them  all,  and  with  each 
one  of  them :  and  although  I  may  not  be  able  now  clearly 
to  discern  that  consistency,  and  much  less  to  point  it  out 
to  the  satisfaction  of  others,  yet  consistent  with  them  it 
must  be,  and  it  is;  and  time  will  show  it. 


228  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

On  this  ground  it  is  that  the  friends  of  the  Bible, 
deeply  convinced,  from  evidence  which  is  deemed  appro- 
priate, full  and  conclusive,  that  the  Bible  is,  in  sober 
verity,  a  revelation  from  Almighty  God,  hold  it  to  be 
truth,  pure  and  unmixed. 

We  do,  therefore,  believe,  that  this  revealed  truth  must 
be  consistent  with  all  and  with  every  truth,  be  it  derived 
from  what  source  it  may.  We  are  persuaded,  that  no 
one  truth  which  God  may  discover  to  us  in  his  works, 
can  (by  any  possibility,)  be  found  to  contradict  any  truth 
He  has  revealed  to  us  in  his  word.  And,  therefore, 
when,  as  the  result  of  scientific  investigation,  or  of  anti- 
quarian research,  a  position  seems  to  be  established, 
which  presents  an  aspect  of  hostility  to  any  statement 
found  in  the  Bible,  we  pause^  until  further  investigation 
shall  yield  clearer  light ;  perfectly  satisfied  that  Uie  truth^ 
when  really  elicited  by  science,  or  when  gleaned  from 
antique  monuments,  will  be  found,  not  to  contradict,  but 
to  confirm  the  statements  made  on  the  page  of  inspiration. 

Thus  it  has  always  turned  out  hitherto,  and  thus  we  are 
persuaded  it  will  yet  turn  out  in  every  future  instance. 

We  worship  the  God  made  known  to  us  in  the  Bible  ; 
and  we  hold  the  statements  therein  contained  to  be  the 
most  certain  of  all  truths. 

A  position  taken,  no  matter  what  be  the  learning,  or 
the  scientific  skill,  nor  how  world-wide  may  be  the  celeb- 
rity of  him,  or  of  those  by  whom  that  position  is  taken, 
if  it  he  inconsistent  witJi,  or  contradictory  ofi  Bible  state- 
ments, we  regard  with  distrust.  We  cannot  at  once  class 
it  with  undoubted  truths.  We  would  have  it  subjected 
to  the  most  rigid  scrutiny,  until  its  real  character  shall  be 
ascertained  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  cavil. 


CREATION   IN  SIX  DAYS.  229 

In  all  past  instances,  the  result  of  patient  and  thorough 
investigation  has  justified  crur  firm  confidence  in  the  Bi- 
ble, nor  can  we  doubt  that  so  it  ever  will  be  hereafter. 
And  yet  the  enthusiastic  devotees  of  mere  science  charge 
the  friends  of  the  Bible,  (and  especially  the  clergy,)  with 
being  bigoted  adherents  to  antiquated  notions,  opposers 
of  free  investigation,  and  enemies  to  science. 

A  host  of  names  might  be  cited  in  refutation  of  the 
charge,  such  as  those  of  Buckland,  Pye  Smith,  Chalmers, 
Hitchcock,  not  to  insist  on  such  as  Mantell,  Silliman, 
Henry,  Conyheare,  Eichardson,  Hugh  Miller,  Ansted,  Ly- 
ell,  all  friends  of  revelation,  and  communicants  in  the 
Christian  church,  no  less  than  eminent  for  scientific  at- 
tainments. 

True,  the  friends  of  the  Bible  are  not  willing  to  have 
crude  conjectures  and  theories,  at  best  but  half  estab- 
lished, substituted  in  place  of  the  teachings  of  inspiration. 

We  would  not  have  wild  hypotheses,  which,  though 
defended  by  plausible  arguments,  are  obviously  not 
proved — proclaimed  to  the  world  as  demonstrated  truths 
— before  which  every  position,  previously  regarded  as 
truth,  is  to  give  way  the  moment  it  is  found  inconsistent 
with  these  novel  and  ever- varying  theories. 

As  such  baseless  theories,  it  seems  to  me  must  be 
ranked,  most  of  those  novel  dogmas  now  most  pertina- 
ciously advocated,  and  industriously  propagated  among 
us  by  means  of  essays,  and  lectures,  and  dissertations 
almost  daily  issuing  from  the  press,  and  quoted,  and 
lauded,  and  defended  in  many  of  our  literary  periodi- 
cals and  public  journals. 

Of  such  is  the  nebular  hypothesis^  as  it  is  termed,  which 
seeks  to  account  for  the  origin  of  suns  and  of  planets, 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

(our  system  and  our  earth  included,)  from  a  kind  of  fire- 
mist  filling  the  vast  expanse  of  nature. 

Of  this  attenuated  substance,  different  masses  are,  by 
the  advocates  of  this  theory,  supposed  to  have  been  put 
in  motion,  each  mass  revolving  round  its  own  appropri- 
ate centre,  and  gradually  contracting,  and  in  so  doing, 
throwing  off  portions,  ever  and  anon,  which  become 
planets,  each  turning  round  upon  its  own  centre,  and 
moving  also  in  its  own  peculiar  path,  or  orbit,  around 
the  parent  mass,  which  becomes,  in  due  time,  a  sun,  the 
centre  of  a  system  comprising  it,  and  all  of  the  several 
inferior  masses,  or  satellites,  thrown  off  from  it,  and 
revolving  round  it. 

This  nebular  hypothesis  has  been  pronounced  a  mere 
theory,  ingenious,  perhaps,  but  not  proved,  and  it  was 
so  pronounced  by  no  less  an  authority  than  that  of  Sir 
John  Herschel.  (See  his  Opening  Address  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  British  Association  at  Cambridge,  June  19, 
1845.) 

In  regard  to  this  nebular  hypothesis,  I  would  not  be 
understood  as  asserting  that  it  may  not,  after  all,  be  the 
true  one,  but  only  that  it  is  not  yet  proved  to  be  true, 
and  it  cannot,  therefore,  be  safely  used  as  the  basis  of  any 
argument. 

But  I  do  earnestly  protest  against  the  use  which  some 
writers  have  shown  themselves  ready  to  make  of  this 
hypothesis,  so  to  account  for  the  origin  of  the  several 
systems  making  up  the  universe,  by  mere  natural  causes, 
as  virtually  to  exclude  God  from  all  direct  agency  in  the 
creation. 

Another  of  these  crude  hypotheses,  is  the  doctrine  of 
development^  or  of  progression^  as  it  is  sometimes  designa- 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  231 

ted,  wliicli  seeks  to  account  for  the  production  of  all  ani- 
mals, and  of  man  himself,  by  gradual  progress,  from  the 
simple  mass  of  a  minute  jelly-point,  quickened  by  elec- 
tric forces,  to  higher  and  yet  higher  forms  of  organiza- 
tion, until,  finally,  man  appears — an  improvement  upon 
his  prototype,  the  ape,  or  ourang-outang. 

This  doctrine,  though  once  strangely  sanctioned  by  the 
great  name  of  Lamarck,  has,  by  late  writers  of  the  high- 
est authority,  been  condemned,  as  being  not  only  not 
sustained,  but  plainly  contradicted  by  the  latest  discover- 
ies among  the  fossil  remains,  included  in  some  of  even 
the  oldest  deposits.  Sir  C.  Lyell,  speaking  of  this 
theory  of  the  progressive  development  of  animal  and 
vegetable  life,  and  their  successive  advancement  from  a 
simpler  to  a  more  perfect  state,  asks  very  significantly, 
"  Has  it  any  foundation  in  fact  .^"  and  then  he  adds,  "  No 
geologists,  who  are  in  possession  of  all  the  data  now  es- 
tablished respecting  fossil  remains,  will,  for  a  moment, 
contend  for  this  doctrine,  in  all  its  details." — (Principles 
of  Geology,  chap.  ix.  p.  131,  8th  ed.  1850.) 

Again  he  says,  p.  143,  "  We  have  already  vertebrated 
animals,  in  the  most  ancient  strata."  Again,  p.  144, 
"  In  this  succession  of  quadrupeds,  we  cannot  detect  any 
signs  of  a  progressive  development  of  organization." 

Consult  also,  Footprints  of  Creation,  by  H.  Miller,  pp. 
204,  205.  On  this  doctrine  of  development,  Mr.  Ansted, 
in  his  neat  work  entitled,  "  The  Ancient  World,"  says,  "In 
making  use  of  the  word  succession^  I  have  no  intention  of 
assuming  a  gradual  modification  of  species,  in  the  way  of 
development  of  a  higher  organization,  as  if  animals  origi- 
nally created  imperfect,  were  subsequently,  and  hj  mani- 
fest gradation,  at  length  enabled  to  perform  functions  of 


232  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

a  higher  kind ;  for  this  is  hy  no  means  the  case^  so  far  as 
the  observations  of  geologists  have  hitherto  been  able  to 
determine,"  (p.  65.) 

Again  he  says,  p.  66 j  "  Some  persons  conclude  that 
there  was  a  succession,  and  a  gradual  development  of 
higher  types  of  existence,  in  a  certain  order  of  creation. 
But,  so  far  as  geology,  in  its  present  state,  affords  evi- 
dence on  the  subject,  the  facts  seem  decidedly  opposed  to  any 
such  view." — (See  also  pp.  391,  392.) 

So  also  the  celebrated  Professor  Owen,  in  a  paper  read 
before  the  British  Association  when  met  at  Plymouth,  in 
1842,  (see  Report,  p.  202,)  remarks, — "  Though  a  general 
progress  may  be  discerned,  yet  the  interruptions  and 
faults,  (to  use  a  geological  phrase,)  negative  the  notion 
that  progression  has  been  the  result  of  self-developing 
energies,  adequate  to  the  transmutation  of  specific  char- 
acters ;  but  on  the  contrary,  support  the  conclusion,  that 
the  modifications  of  osteological  structure  which  charac- 
terize the  extinct  reptiles,  were  originally  impressed  upon 
them  at  their  creation,  and  have  been  neither  derived 
from  improvement  of  a  lower,  nor  lost  by  progressive  de- 
velopment into  a  higher  type." 

On  this  subject,  consult  also  Sir  C.  Lyell's  remarks  on 
the  celebrated  theory  of  Lamarck.  (Princ.  Geol.  b.  iii. 
chap.  35,  36,  pp.  544-568,  8th  edit.  Lond.  1850.) 

Testimony  equally  explicit  and  decided  against  the 
doctrine  of  progressive  development  is  given  by  Richard- 
son, H.  Miller,  Ansted,  Professors  Owen  and  Hitchcock, 
and  other  distinguished  men,  and  testimony  corroborated 
by  scientific  facts,  decisive  in  the  case. 

The  theory  of  progressive  development,  may  now  be 
ranked  among  the  dreams  of  the  past.     Most  laboriously 


CEEATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  238 

argued,  and  learnedly  defended,  and  industriously  propa- 
gated of  late,  has  been  the  doctrine  of  a  separate  and  dis- 
tinct origin^  for  the  several  differeyit  races  of  mankind^  or  di- 
visions of  the  human  family,  a  doctrine  which  denies  their 
descent  from  one  human  pair,  the  common  ancestors  of 
all  men  ;  and  strange  to  say,  this  astounding  dogma  is 
pronounced  by  men  of  note,  in  the  scientific  world,  to  be 
not  inconsistent  with  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  ! 

Another  doctrine  is  favored,  at  least,  by  some  geolo- 
gists of  name,  and  is  boldly  contended  for  by  not  a  few 
of  the  prominent  ethnologists,  and  archaeologists,  and 
even  by  some  of  the  historians  of  our  day,  especially  in 
France  and  Germany.  This  doctrine  assigns  to  our  globe, 
not  only  as  a  distinct  planet,  but  also  as  now  consti- 
tuted and  subsequent  to  the  last  of  the  great  cataclysms, 
or  convulsions  of  which  geology  treats,  and  with  it  as- 
signs to  man  as  its  occupant,  a  vast^  an  absolutely  fabulous 
antiquity^  running  back,  according  to  some,  thousands  of 
ages  antecedent  to  the  date  assigned  to  Noah's  deluge, 
and  even  to  the  date  of  the  creation  of  Adam. 

These,  and  some  kindred  dogmas,  are  conjectures  at 
best :  fortified,  it  is  true,  by  some  few  admitted  facts,  and 
seconded  by  a  great  deal  of  plausible  reasoning,  but,  most 
assuredly,  not  proved.  These  several  dogmas  I  propose 
hereafter  to  examine,  but  not  now.  To  us  it  seems  but 
reasonable  and  right  to  require  that,  until  a  position  is 
fully  established  as  truth  undeniable,  it  be  kept  under 
advisement,  and  subjected  to  close  and  searching  scru- 
tiny, if  it  present  the  appearance  of  hostility  to  revelation. 
This  we  ash^  and  this  is  all  we  ask !  If,  after  thorough 
investigation,  it  be  found  to  be  truth,  it  will  not  be  at 
variance  with  the  actual  teachings  of  the  Bible. 


234  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

•  We  contend  not  for  any  merely  human  system,  either 
of  doctrines,  or  of  chronological  dates  ;  we  contend  only 
for  the  truth  of  the  Bible  itself. 

If,  on  any  point,  we  have  misunderstood  or  misinter- 
preted the  Bible,  we  shall  gladly  avail  ourselves  of  any 
means  for  rectifying  our  opinions,  and  coming  at  a  nearer 
and  a  clearer  view  of  the  meaning  of  God's  veritable 
teachings,  let  those  means  reach  us  from  what  quarter 
they  may. 

But,  if  it  be  once  shown  that  any  one  assertion  made 
in  the  Bible  is  erroneous,  then  my  confidence  in  the  Bi- 
ble is  shaken,  and  my  confidence  in  that  particular  book, 
or  portion  of  the  Bible,  in' which  the  error  is  shown  to 
exist,  is  gone,  utterly  gone  forever. 

The  Bible  may  still  be  the  best,  and  the  noblest  book 
on  earth — it  may  contain  the  most  ancient  history  that 
is  authentic,  the  finest  thoughts,  the  most  magnificent 
imagery,  the  most  spirit-stirring  poetry,  and  the  purest 
system  of  morality  too,  (all  this,  the  Bible  certainly  does 
contain,)  but  if,  in  any  part  essential  to  its  integrity  as  a 
whole,  it  involve  one  false  doctrine,  one  erroneous  asser- 
tion, it  cannot  be  a  revelation  from  God  1  Because  God, 
who  is  the  fountain  of  all  truth,  can  never  embody  a  lie, 
in  a  communication  proceeding  from  Him.  A  solitary 
assertion,  an  insulated  sentence,  or  paragraph,  (such,  e.  g. 
as  the  story  of  Christ's  interview  with  the  woman  taken 
in  adultery,  and  with  her  accusers,  recorded  in  John  viii. 
3-11,)  may  have  been  foisted  into  the  sacred  record,  by 
carelessness  or  the  mistake  of  early  expositors  and  of 
subsequent  transcribers  possibly  such  interpolation  may 
have  been  designedly  made,  from  some  unknown  quar- 
ter, and  yet  the  doctrines  and  the  history  of  the  Bible 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  235 

may  remain  unaffected,  as  it  would  be.  in  the  case  just 
supposed. 

But  a  passage,  containing  particulars  essential  to  the 
integrity  of  a  narrative  or  record,  which  involves  and  on 
which  rests  a  doctrine,  that  is  oft  repeated  in  various 
forms  and  in  different  places ;  more  especially  if  that 
doctrine  be  vital  to  the  system  of  religion  taught  in  the  Bi- 
ble, cannot  be  shown  to  be  unworthy  of  credit,  without 
shaking  utterly  and  irretrievably,  all  confidence  in  the 
truth  of  the  Bible. 

Such  vital  doctrine  is,  unquestionably,  the  common  ori- 
gin of  all  the  races  of  men  from  one  and  the  same  human 
pair  ! 

Whatever  the  difference  of  anatomical  structure,  color, 
features,  habits,  or  mental  capacity  now  found  among 
men,  all  men  have  sprung  from  the  one  original  pair 
created  in  Eden,  and  all  nations  of  men  are  of  one  hhod; 
else.  Genesis  is  a  fallacious  document,  the  epistles  of  Paul 
must  be  rejected,  especially  Eomans  and  Hebrews,  and 
the  letters  to  Timothy ;  and  the  book  of  Acts  records  a 
falsehood  as  truth.  But  if  so,  then  the  whole  gospel  is 
virtually  nullified.  For,  if  there  were  other  original 
pairs,  besides  Adam  and  Eve,  formed  by  the  Creator  as 
the  progenitors  of  the  several  races  of  men,  then,  since 
Christ  died  for  the  children  of  Adam  only,  and  since  no 
one  of  us  can  now  tell  with  absolute  certainty  from  what 
race  he  is  sprung,  it  must  be  impossible  to  decide  who  is 
or  who  is  not  entitled  to  look  for  a  participation  in  the 
benefit  of  the  Gospel  salvation.  Happily  for  our  peace 
as  believers  in  revelation,  although  the  naturalist  may 
conjecture^  that  different  races  of  men  are  indigenous  in 
different  regions  of  the  earth,  the  idea  is  a  conjecture  merely. 


236  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

To  adduce  proof,  is  impossible ;  because  the  grounds  of 
evidence  on  this  subject,  lie  back  of  all  experience,  ut- 
terly beyond  all  range  of  human  observation.  As  an 
eminent  philosopher.  Dr.  Hutton,  has  said  of  geology : 
"  Geology  treats  of  the  changes  effected  on  the  earth's 
surface,  since  its  creation.  About  the  origin  of  the  earth, 
it  teaches,  and  it  can  teach,  literally  nothing^  (See  Kich- 
ardson's  Geology,  p.  92.) 

So  it  is  equally  true  of  natural  history  :  it  treats  of  the 
nature,  the  properties,  and  the  habits  of  organized  bodies 
now  existing,  or  that  have  existed  upon  the  earth.  But 
of  the  oiijgin  of  those  bodies,  it  teaches,  and  it  can  teach, 
absolutely  nothing  I 

The  doctrine  of  the  diversity  of  origin  for  the  several 
races  of  mankind,  is  founded  on  hypotJiesis  merely ;  it  is 
opposed  by  strong  probabilities,  and  it  is  directly  in  the 
teeth  of  the  teachings  of  the  Bible. 

It  is  hare  hypothesis  against  revelation  I 

Again :  it  has,  with  confidence,  been  asserted,  that  the 
certain  results  of  geological  explorations,  show  conclu- 
sively, that  the  heavens  and  the  earth  could  not  have 
been  created  in  the  short  space  of  six  natural  days — six 
revolutions  of  the  earth  on  its  axis!  But  the  Bible 
seems  to  assert  that  so  it  was ;  and  if  the  teachings  of 
geology  were  actually  inconsistent  with  the  Bible  state- 
ment, when  rightly  understood,  I,  for  one,  would  un- 
hesitatingly reject  geology,  and  keep  to  Moses. 

But  they  are  not  at  all  inconsistent,  as  I  hope  to  show. 

True,  I  have  not,  as  yet,  met  with  any  exposition  of 
the  1st  chap,  of  Genesis,  showing  its  accordance,  in  all 
minute  particulars^  with  the  well-ascertained  results,  the 
demonstrated  doctrines  (as  they  may  be  designated,)  of 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  207, 

geology.  But  the  great  facts  presented  in  the  Mosaic 
cosmogony,  are  so  accordant  to  the  great  facts  brought 
to  our  knowledge  by  sound  geology,  that  the  wonder  is, 
not  that  we  cannot  discern  a  strict  agreement  in  all 
minute  points,  as  detailed  in  Genesis,  but  that,  in  an  age 
so  remote  as  that  of  Moses,  (nearly  3,500  years  since,) 
when,  as  all  we  know  of  antiquity  assures  us,  the  facts 
brought  to  light  by  modern  geological  research  were  un- 
known and  unimagined,  even  by  the  most  learned,  and 
by  Moses  himself;  still,  the  great  Hebrew  legislator,  in  a 
description  of  the  creation,  comprised  in  a  few  lines,  and 
composing,  altogether,  but  one  brief  paragraph,  has 
given  us  an  outline  of  the  events  attending  creation, 
which  was,  from  the  first,  and  to  the  most  ignorant 
reader,  intelligible  as  to  the  leading  facts,  viz.,  that  the 
heavens,  and  the  earth  are  the  production  of  an  Almighty 
God ;  and  that,  after  our  globe  had  existed  for  some  un- 
defined period,  in  a  mode  different  from  the  present,  it 
was,  at  some  remote  point  in  the  past,  reduced,  by  the 
same  Almighty  God,  to  a  condition  fitted  to  receive  its 
present  varied  occupants,  man  included,  which  were,  in 
gradual  succession,  brought  into  existence,  to  dwell  upon 
it.  And  yet  this  brief  outline  of  the  history  of  creation 
is  found  to  be  rendered  not  absurd,  but  only  the  clearer, 
and  the  more  intelligible,  the  further  science  extends  her 
discoveries,  and  enlarges  our  acquaintance  with  the 
structure  of  this  earth,  and  with  the  nature  and  disposi- 
tion of  its  several  component  parts. 

For,  modern  research  has  shown,  that  man,  and  the 
existing  races  of  animated  beings,  are  of  a  comparatively 
modern  date.  That  the  earth  itself,  in  the  various  strata 
or  beds  of  rock,  lying  one  above  another,  and  which,  by 


288  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

different  agencies,  have  been  made  accessible  to  our  re- 
search, contains  the  remains  of  several  successive  races 
of  animal  occupants  of  this  globe,  which  lived  and 
flourished,  each  race  during  its  appropriate  period,  and 
which  perished,  by  successive  convulsions  of  nature,  that 
left  their  remains,  the  proof  of  their  existence,  imbedded 
in  the  soil  they  had  occupied ;  left  there,  when  it  was 
submerged,  time  and  again,  beneath  the  invading  waters 
of  the  great  deep. 

Extensive  observations,  made  with  great  care,  by 
many  independent  and  competent  explorers,  and  made 
in  almost  every  region  of  the  earth,  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  Europe,  in  Northern  Africa,  in 
Kussia,  in  Hindostan,  in  Arabia,  in  Palestine,  in  Egypt, 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  over  a  large  part  of  both  North 
and  South  America,  yield  similar  results.  On  this  sub- 
ject, therefore,  there  is  no  room  left  for  doubt.  This 
earth  must  have  been  existing  for  many  long  ages.  It 
has  been  tenanted  by  many  successive  races  of  living 
occupants,  and  it  was  subjected  to  several  great  and 
vastly  extensive  changes  on  its  surface,  in  periods  of 
time,  running  back,  it  may  be  for  thousands  or  possibly 
for  millions  of  ages,  before  man  was  created  on  the  earth. 

Now  Moses  tells  us  that  in  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heavens  and  the  earth.  This  declaration  is  perfectly 
intelligible,  and  quite  reasonable.  But,  how  far  back 
before  our  time,  or  before  the  creation  of  man,  this  begin- 
ning may  have  been,  Moses  does  not  say  ;  nor  does  he 
furnish  any  data  on  which  we  might  found  a  computation 
as  to  the  interval  between  that  beginning  and  our  time. 

The  next  statement  Moses  makes  is,  that  this  earth 
was  without  form,  and  void,  and  covered  with  darkness, 


CKEATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  239 

land  and  water  being  commingled  in  one  chaotic  mass. 
And  from  this  state  it  was,  that  the  earth  was  gradually 
reduced  to  its  present  condition,  and  peopled  with  its 
present  occupants,  at  the  period  with  which  his  history 
commences.  Moses  does  not  say  that  such  was  the  con- 
dition of  the  earth  when  it  was  first  brought  into  being, 
and  that  God  proceeded  immedirMy  to  prepare  it  for  the 
reception  of  man.  His  narrative  is  not  inconsistent  with 
the  idea  of  myriads  of  ages  between  the  first  creation  of 
the  earth  and  the  chaotic  state  immediately  preceding  the 
creation  of  man,  and  of  the  living  races,  his  contempo- 
raries. And  a  very  long  interval  geological  facts  cer- 
tainly require  us  to  suppose. 

So  far,  then,  there  is  entire  harmony  between  the  de- 
ductions of  science  and  the  teachings  of  Genesis.  This 
agreement  has,  again  and  again,  been  pointed  out  by 
distinguished  scholars  in  the  scientific  world. 

Thus  says  Richardson,  in  his  classical  work,  modestly 
entitled,  "  Geology  for  Beginners,"  (2d  edit.  p.  82 :) 
"Among  the  most  valuable  and  most  satisfactory  of 
the  first  lessons  taught  by  geology,  must  be  enumerated 
the  conviction,  which  its  very  earliest  inquiries  serve  to 
convey,  of  the  perfect  harmony  of  the  science  with  reve- 
lation, and  the  groundless  nature  of  those  fears  which 
many  well-meaning,  but  mistaken  persons,  so  needlessly 
entertain,  of  the  possibility  of  collision  between  the  two." 
"  It  may  sufiice  to  dispel  such  fears,  if  we  state,  that  in 
all  essential  points,  and  we  would  particularly  instance 
the  date  of  the  creation  ofman^  we  find  the  records  of  Scrip- 
ture fully  and  completely  confirmed  by  the  evidence  of 
physical  facts."     (p.  84.) 

Professor  Silliman,  of  Yale  College,  in  his  Introduc- 


240  CREATION   IN  SIX  DAYS. 

tion  to  the  American  edition  of  Dr.  Mantell's  Wonders 
of  Creation,  remarks :  "  While  the  science  of  astronomy 
is,  in  fact,  inconsistent  with  the  apparent  movements  of 
the  heavens,  and  therefore  with  the  popular  phraseology 
of  the  Scriptures,  if  taken  literally,  which  allude  to 
physical  objects  as  they  appear  to  the  uninstructed  mind, 
not  as  they  are  in  reality ;  so  that  now,  all  agree  in  un- 
derstanding the  language  of  the  Scriptures  as  being  ap- 
plied to  the  appearances  of  the  heavens,  of  which  alone 
mankind  in  general  can  form  any  just  conception  ;  geol- 
ogy presents  not  even  this  discrepancy,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, a  substantial  agreement  in  its  facts,  with  the  Scrip- 
ture !"  Again :  "  The  Scripture  declares,  there  was  a  he- 
ginning  ;  and  geology  proves  that  there  was  a  time  when 
neither  plants,  nor  animals,  nor  man  existed."  Again  : 
"  The  consistency  of  geology  with  the  early  Scripture 
history,  is  susceptible  of  a  perfect  and  triumphant  de- 
fence." (Vol.  i.  p.  23,  Mantell's  Wonders  of  Geology, 
6th  edit.    London,  1848.) 

Dr.  Mantell  himself  remarks,  that  while  the  Bible  re- 
veals to  us  the  moral  history  and  destiny  of  our  race,  and 
instructs  us  that  the  existing  races  of  beings  have  inhab- 
ited the  earth  but  a  few  thousand  years,  the  physical 
monuments  of  our  globe  bear  witness  to  the  same  truth." 
(Vol.  i.  p.  29.) 

The  celebrated  Bishop  Berkeley,  who  lived  before  the 
discoveries  of  geology  burst  upon  the  scientific  world, 
could,  (as  appears  from  an  eloquent  passage  cited  by 
Lyell,  in  the  5th  edition  of  his  Principles  of  Geology, 
vol.  iii.  p.  250,)  even  from  the  limited  knowledge  of  fos- 
sil remains  then  obtained,  perceive  that  the  frame  of  our 
globe  must  be  of  vast  antiquity  ;  and  yet  he  regards  that 


CREATION  IN"  SIX  DAYS.  241 

antiquity  as  no  way  inconsistent  with  the  historical  ac- 
count of  events  recorded  in  the  book  of  Genesis.  (See 
also  Lyell's  Princ.  of  Geol.  8th  edit.  London,  1850, 
p.  789.) 

The  great  English  geologist,  Sir  C.  Lyell,  does,  in  the 
8th  edition  of  his  Principles  (1850)  express,  although  in 
measured  terms,  a  similar  judgment,  as  to  the  harmony 
of  geology  and  the  Bible.  He  argues,  at  length,  the 
recent  origin  of  man,  (pp.  144,  145.)  In  the  conclu- 
ding remarks  he  says:  "  We  admit  the  creation  of  man  to 
have  occurred  at  a  comparatively  modern  epochJ''  (p.  773.) 
Again,  on  p.  740,  stands  this  striking  observation,  "  That 
many  signs  of  the  agency  of  man  would  have  lasted  at 
least  as  long  as  '  the  shells  of  the  primitive  world^  had  our 
race  been  as  ancient,  we  may  feel  fully  persuaded,  as  was 
Berkeley." 

In  relation  to  the  harmony  of  science  and  revelation, 
as  to  the  creation  of  man,  the  present  learned  Bishop  of 
London  has  eloquently  remarked,  in  one  of  his  sermons  : 
"As  we  are  not  called  upon  by  Scripture  to  admit,  so 
neither  are  we  required  to  deny,  the  supposition,  that  the 
matter,  without  form  and  void,  out  of  which  the  globe 
was  formed,  may  have  consisted  of  the  wreck  and  relics 
of  more  ancient  worlds,  created  and  destroyed,  by  the 
same  Almighty  Power,  which  called  our  world  into  be- 
ing, and  will,  one  day,  cause  it  to  pass  away  I" 

Mr.  Eichardson  also  says,  "The  comparatively  modern 
period  of  the  creation  of  man,  and  the  inferior  age  of  our 
race,  to  that  of  the  globe  which  we  inhabit,  is  a  fact  re- 
vealed by  Scripture,  and  confirmed  by  science."  The 
same  internal  evidence  which  convinces  us  of  the  extreme 
antiquity  of  our  planet,  affords  the  like  satisfactory  proof 

11 


242  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

of  the  comparatively  modern  period  of  the  origin  of  our 
species.     (Geol.  p.  89.) 

But  after  all,  Moses  certainly  does  say,  that  ^^  in  six  days 
Jehovah  made  heaven  and  earthy  the  sea  and  all  that  in  them 
w;"  which  seems  to  imply  that  the  entire  universe  was 
produced,  and  fashioned  to  its  present  form,  in  the  brief 
period  of  six  days,  from  the  first  creative  act. 

Such  was  long  the  understanding  of  the  passage,  and 
such  is  still  the  interpretation  that  many  good  men  give 
it ;  and  certain  it  is,  that  the  phrase  "  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,^^  is  often  used  in  the  Bible,  to  denote  the  entire 
universe,  the  whole  material  creation. 

If  this  were  plainly  and  necessarily,  the  only  interpre- 
tation the  passage  will  bear,  then  the  teachings  of  Moses 
would  be  inconsistent  with  the  conclusions  drawn  from 
the  facts  of  geology ;  and,  in  that  case,  no  alternative 
would  be  left  us:  we  must  either  reject  the  Pentateuch, 
or  reject  the  doctrines  of  geology. 

Now  certainly,  in  the  interpretation  of  a  document  so 
ancient  as  is  the  Pentateuch,  and  that  too,  in  relation  to 
a  subject  so  obscure  as  is  the  creation,  if  facts  well  ascer- 
tained, and  doctrines  absolutely  demonstrated,  present  ir- 
reconcilable contradictions  to  the  interpretation  we  had 
deemed  most  natural,  the  proper  inference  would  seem 
to  be,  that  the  error  lies  rather  in  our  imperfect  interpre- 
tation, than  in  the  veritable  meaning  of  the  document, 
forming  part  of  a  book  proved  to  be  inspired,  or  in  the 
doctrines  carefully  based  on  scientific  ground. 

To  remove  this  difficulty,  some  distinguished  men, 
(among  whom,  at  one  time,  Professor  Silliman  was,)  have 
conjectured  that  the  word  day  in  the  1st  chapter  of  Gene- 
sis, and  in  Exod,  xx.  11,  denotes,  not  a  natural  day  of 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  243 

twenty-four  hours,  but  an  indefinite  period ;  in  which  in- 
definite sense,  the  word  day  certainly  appears  to  be  used 
in  some  other  passages  in  the  Bible.  This  interpretation 
they  deem  corroborated,  by  the  correspondence  between 
the  successive  steps  of  the  creation,  as  related  by  Moses, 
beginning  with  reptiles,  and  fishes,  the  lowest  forms  of 
animal  life,  and  thence  passing  on  up  to  those  of  higher 
organization,  and  lastly  to  man,  and  a  similar  series  qf 
successive  races  of  extinct  animals,  found  imbedded  in 
different  strata  in  the  earth,  beginning  with  simpler  forms 
in  the  lower  strata,  and  gradually  exhibiting  a  higher 
organization  in  the  several  series  nearer  to  the  present 
system. 

Nay,  some  have  conjectured,  that  all  these  strata  of  ex- 
tinct animals  were  deposited  in  the  period  intervening 
between  the  creation  of  Adam,  and  the  subsiding  of  the 
waters  of  Noah's  deluge.  This  theory  has  been  put  forth 
anew  by  a  recent  American  writer.* 

If  this  interpretation,  and  its  attendant  theory  could  be 
established,  it  would,  at  once,  remove  all  difficulty.  But 
it  cannot.  Against  its  adoption  lie  several  objections 
that  are  weighty  ;  are,  indeed,  insuperable.     For : 

1st.  The  narrative  in  Genesis  is  a  plain  statement.  In 
one  part  of  it,  the  word  day  is  evidently  used  in  its  ordi- 
nary sense,  to  denote  a  natural  day  of  twenty-four  hours. 
To  interpret  the  same  word,  in  the  same  passage,  in  two 
senses  so  different,  and  so  wide  apart,  as  must  be  done  on 
the  hypothesis  of  indefinite  periods,  and  that  without  any- 
thing in  the  passage  itself  intimating  a  change  in  the 
meaning  attached  to  it,  is  contrary  to  all  rules  of  sound 
interpretation. 

*  Epoch  of  Creation,  by  Dr.  Lord,  1861,  passim,  and  especially  p.  244. 


244  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

In  the  fourtli  commandment,  the  fact  that  God  em- 
ployed six  immense  periods  of  time  in  the  work  of  crea- 
tion, and  then  rested  a  seventh  period  that  may  have  ex- 
tended through  many  ages,  would  hardly  strike  one  as 
presenting  a  cogent  reason  why  man  should  rest  one  nat- 
ural day  of  twenty-four  hours,  after  every  six  natural 
days  spent  in  labor  !  To  say  the  least,  this  interpreta- 
tion is  a  forced  and  an  unnatural  one.  (See  a  curious 
note  on  this  point  in  Hugh  Miller's  Foot  Prints,  p.  308.) 

But,  2d.  The  analogy  pointed  out  in  the  series  of  the 
Mosaic  six  days'  creation,  and  in  that  of  the  strata  of 
fossil  remains,  does  not  hold  good  throughout,  either  as 
to  number,  or,  strictly  speaking,  as  to  order  and  struc- 
ture ;  although  there  is  a  general  resemblance,  which  is 
very  striking. 

3d.  The  time  intervening  between  the  creation  of  Adam  and 
the  exodus  of  Noah  from  the  ark,  is  too  short  to  allow  the  de- 
posit of  all  the  hnown  strata  of  extinct  animals.  Fossil  re- 
mains of  former  races  of  now  extinct  animals,  are  found 
through  various  strata  of  rock,  lying  one  over  the  other, 
to  a  thickness,  or  a  depth,  estimated  as  equal  to  six  miles. 

Ages  innumerable,  and  the  occurrence  of  one  great 
convulsion  of  earth  after  another,  must  have  been  required 
to  give  time  for  the  existence,  and  enable  us  to  account 
for  the  destruction,  and  the  successive  accumulation  of 
these  various  races,  in  the  rocks  gradually  formed  by 
the  deposit  from  overspreading  waters. 

In  some  countries  there  are  beds  of  chalk  many  hun- 
dreds of  feet  in  thickness,  (Richardson,  pp.  450-454,)  and 
in  others,  vast  masses  of  limestone  ;  and  this  chalk,  or 
limestone,  is  composed  of  countless  myriads  upon  myr- 
iads of  minute  microscopic  shells,  each  of  which  was  once 


CREATION   IN  SIX  DAYS.  245 

the  habitation  of  a  living  creature,  as  completely  organ- 
ized as  were  the  living  creatures  once  tenanting  the  most 
splendid  of  the  beautiful  shells  that  adorn  the  centre-table 
or  the  mantel  of  a  modern  lady's  parlor  ;  but  so  minute, 
that  millions  upon  millions  of  them  are  included  in  a 
cubic  inch  of  the  rock.  What  countless  ages  must  have 
elapsed,  ere,  from  such  materials,  masses  of  chalk  or  of 
limestone,  miles  in  extent,  and  hundreds  of  feet  in  thick- 
ness, could  have  been  formed.  Why,  even*  the  soft 
limestone  found  abundantly  in  Alabama,  a  rock  which 
abounds  in  fossils  lying  through  its  entire  mass,  like  the 
fruit  in  a  plum-cake,  is,  in  many  places,  seven  and  even 
nine  hundred  feet  thick,  as  is  proved  by  the  borings  made 
in  various  parts  of  Greene  and  Sumpter  counties,  for 
Artesian  wells.  And  this  rock  is  comparatively  a  recent 
deposit.  In  his  late  report  on  the  geology  of  Alabama, 
Professor  Toomey,  of  the  University  of  Alabama,  very 
justly  remarks,  (p.  123,)  "The  whole  of  what  is  called 
rotten  limestone,  once  existed  in  the  state  of  soft  mud, 
a  sedimentary  deposit  formed  gradually  at  the  bottom  of  a  deep 
sea;  and  hence  the  remains  of  marine  animals  and  shells 
found  in  it." 

Now,  we  may  well  ask,  could  the  waters  of  JSToah's 
deluge,  however  tumultuous,  have  brought  together,  and 
deposited  over  the  region  where  now  it  lies,  this  vast 
mass  of  limestone,  when  that  deluge  lasted  less  than  a 
year  ?     It  is  utterly  incredible. 

And,  for  the  entire  series  of  animal  deposits  known  to 
exist  for  miles  in  thickness,  and  consisting  of  several  dis- 
tinct layers  of  the  remains  of  whole  races  that  lived  their 
allotted  periods,  in  different  ages,  and  perished  ;  furnish- 
ing evidence  in  their  very  structure,  and  in  the  nature  of 


246  CREATION   IN  SIX  DAYS. 

the  materials  in  which  thej  lie  imbedded,  that,  in  the 
times  of  their  several  existences,  the  surface  of  the  earth 
presented  widely  different  aspects,  and  that  the  very  ele- 
ments amid  which  they  had  their  existence  were  essen- 
tially different  from  what  they  now  are,  as  to  the  nature 
and  the  proportions  of  their  constituent  ingredients.  To 
account  for  all  this,  any  amount  of  time  we  may  reason- 
ably assign  between  Adam  and  Noah  would  be  utterly 
insufficient.  It  might  almost  be  said,  that  time  enough 
for  all  these  deposits  would  hardly  result  even  from  the 
utter  rejection  of  Usher's  computation  of  dates,  and  the 
adoption  of  the  wild  fables  of  Hindostan,  which  counts 
its  cycles  of  the  past  back  through  hundreds  of  millions 
of  years.* 

Why,  even  to  form  the  present  Delta  of  the  Mississippi 
river,  below  New  Orleans,  which  is  a  mere  alluvium,  a 
deposit  newer  by  many  ages  than  the  limestone  of  the 
prairies,  and  which  is  even  still  in  progress,  the  time  re- 
quisite would,  if  we  assume  the  constancy  in  past  ages 
of  the  present  laws  of  nature,  and  rate  of  progress,  re- 
quire, (as  the  accomplished  French  explorer  in  Egypt, 
Mons.  J.  Ampere,  tells  us  Sir  C.  Lyell  has  computed,) 
sixty-seven  thousand  years.f    (Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 

♦  If  the  theory  I  have  proposed  to  account  for  the  deluge  be  correct, 
that  the  beds  of  ancient  seas  were  then  upheaved,  and  now  fonn  the 
lands,  although  this  might  account  for  many  of  the  marine  deposits,  yet 
it  would  not  account  for  the  different  strata— some  of  marine,  some  of 
fresh  water  origin— and  other  strata  containing  land  animals  and  rep- 
tiles. These  strata  of  diverse  origin,  alternating  one  with  another  in  va- 
rious places,  show  that  there  must  have  been  repeated  alterations  of 
level,  and  that  these  changes  must  have  occupied  a  vastly  prolonged 
period  of  time. 

t  The  time  computed,  some  years  since,  by  Dr.  Dickenson  of  Missis- 
sippi, for  the  formation  of  this  Delta,  was  13,000  or  14,000  years. 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  247 

Nov.  1846,  p.  667.  See  also  Princ.  of  Geol.  pp.  218, 
219.     8tli  edition.) 

The  alluvial  deposit  of  this  Delta  is  less  than  three 
hundred  feet  thick,  and  it  lies  on  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
where  it  has  never  been  subjected  to  any  very  great  pres- 
sure, such  as  that  exerted  by  the  waters  of  the  ocean, 
hundreds  of  fathoms  deep,  upon  the  materials  beneath, 
composing  the  bed  of  the  sea.  What  array  of  figures, 
then,  will  suffice  to  express  the  length  of  time  requisite 
to  form  the  varied  deposits  included  in  the  compact  sub- 
stance of  the  strata  of  rock,  piled  one  "upon  the  other  to 
a  depth  of  six  or  seven  miles  ?*  Compared  with  such  a 
period,  the  interval  between  Adam  and  Noah,  is  but  a 
point — a  mere  moment  of  time  ! 

Besides  all  this,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  4th.  If 
the  flood  of  Noah  was  the  grand  agent  in  maJcing  the  depos- 
its^ and  forming  the  strata  known  to  exist,  there  must  have 
been  human  beings  entombed  among  the  animals,  and  covered 
up  with  them  in  the  deposits  made  by  the  subsiding  waters  of 
the  deluge. 

How  comes  it,  then,  that  among  all  these  various  strata, 
embodying  fossil  remains,  found  at  various  depths,  and  in 
different  countries,  all  over  the  globe,  no  fossil  human  re- 
mains have  as  yet  been  disinterred?  True,  a  few  such 
human  fossils  have,  at  times,  been  spoken  of;  but  all 
such  are  now  known  to  be  of  modern  origin,  imbedded 
in  rock  of  very  recent  formation,  as  at  Guadaloupe,  (see 
Wonders  of  Geology,  vol.  i.  pp.  86,  87,)  or  petrified 
through  the  influence  of  well-understood  local  causes. 
(See  Lyell's  Princ.  Geol.  pp.  713-717,  London,  1850.) 

A  curious  instance  of  a  human  body,  completely  petri- 

*  Hitchcock,  Relig.  of  Geol.  p.  21. 


248  CREATION   IN   SIX  DAYS. 

iied  in  the  space  of  a  very  few  years,  has  been  reported 
in  the  newspapers,  within  the  last  year.  The  body  of  a 
man,  apparently  that  of  an  Irish  laborer,  wearing  cordu- 
roy trowsers,  found  at  Morrison,  in  Illinois,  and  the  whole 
completely  turned  into  stone.  (See  the  Presbyterian, 
Dec.  13, 1851,  p.  199.) 

Dr.  Mantell,  after  describing  a  conglomerated  mass, 
consisting  of  beads,  J^nives  and  sand,  which  was  obtained 
from  a  ship,  stranded  off  Hastings,  on  the  English  coast, 
upwards  of  a  century  ago,  when  it  was  imbedded  in 
silt  and  sand,  says,  "  The  cementing  material  had  been 
derived  from  the  oxidation  of  the  blades  of  the  knives." 
He  also  remarks,  that  from  the  bed  of  the  Thames,  large 
masses  of  a  firm  conglomerate  are  occasionally  dredged 
up,  in  which  Koman  coins,  and  fragments  of  pottery  are 
imbedded,  the  stone  through  which  these  articles  are  in- 
termingled, being  formed  of  sand  and  clay  solidified  by 
ferruginous  infiltration.  Dr.  Mantell  follows  these  state- 
ments with  this  important  remark  :  "  The  consolidation 
of  sand,  gravel,  and  other  detritus,  by  this  agency,  is 
taking  place  everywhere  ;  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean,— on  the  coasts  of  the  West  India  Islands,  and 
of  the  Isle  of  Ascension, — and  on  the  borders  of  the 
United  States.  Thus,  the  remains  of  man  at  Guadaloupe, 
— of  turtle  in  the  Isle  of  Ascension, — of  recent  shells  and 
bones  of  the  ruminants  at  Nice, — of  ancient  pottery  in 
Greece, — and  of  animal  and  vegetable  substances  in 
Great  Britain,  have  become  imbedded  and  preserved." — 
(Vol.  i.  p.  84.) 

Indeed  these  modern  conglomerates,  in  which  pottery 
and  other  fragments  of  man's  workmanship  are  imbedded, 
are  now  so  numerous,  especially  in  Greece,  that,  in  the 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  249 

absence  of  other  monuments,  they  would  sufficiently 
mark  the  human  era,  in  the  earth's  history. — (Lyell's 
Princ.  Geol.  p.  708.) 

In  such  conglomerates,  or  in  caverns  where  they  lie 
intermixed  with  the  fossil  bones  of  animals,  and  often  of 
extinct  species,  fragments  of  human  bones  are  often 
found  in  Sicily,  in  Franconia,  in  Wales,  and  in  the  south 
of  France.  But  all  these  human  remains  are  compara- 
tively recent. 

It  is  not  (see  Lyell's  Princ.  Geol.  p.  716,)  on  the  evi- 
dence of  such  intermixtures  that  we  ought  readily  to  ad- 
mit, either  the  high  antiquity  of  the  human  race,  or  the 
recent  date  of  certain  lost  species  of  quadrupeds.  Again, 
he  remarks  .•  "  The  human  bones,  therefore,  in  the  caves, 
which  are  associated  with  such  fabricated  objects,  must 
belong,  not  to  antediluvian  periods,  but  to  a  people  in 
the  same  stage  of  civilization  as  those  who  constructed 
the  tumuli  and  altars,"  (p.  715.) 

In  the  opinion  of  those  most  competent  to  judge  in  the 
case,  that  point  is  therefore  settled.  ISTo  human  fossils 
occur  in  the  older  deposits ;  no  relics  of  man  have  been 
found  deeper  or  older  than  the  alluvium,  ^.  e.  the  deposit 
of  soil  made  by  rivers,  local  inundations,  and  the  disinte- 
gration of  mountain  crags,  appertaining  to  the  present 
system  of  our  earth's  surface ;  none  anterior,  even,  to  the 
deluge  of  Koah,  nor  coeval  with  it.  Why  it  is  that  no 
remains  of  human  beings  entombed  beneath  the  waters 
of  the  Noachian  deluge,  have  as  yet  been  discovered,  I 
will  endeavor  hereafter  to  explain. 

The  argument  presented  more  than  a  century  ago  by 
Bishop  Berkeley,  in  proof  of  the  recent  origin  of  man,  is 
equally  in  j^oint  against  the  hypothesis  now  under  review, 

11* 


250  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

viz.,  that  all  known  fossil  remains  must  have  been 
deposited  during  the  prevalence  of  Noah's  deluge,  or  in 
the  ages  intervening  between  that  deluge  and  the  crea- 
tion of  Adam.  "  To  any  one,  (says  Berkeley,)  who  con- 
siders that  on  digging  into  the  earth,  such  quantities  of 
shells,  and  in  some  places,  bones  and  horns  of  animals 
are  found,  sound  and  entire  after  having  lain  there,  in  all 
probability,  thousands  of  years  ;  it  would  seem  probable 
that  guns,  medals,  and  implements  in  metal  and  stone, 
might  have  lain  entipe,  buried  under  ground  forty  or 
fifty  thousand  years,  if  the  world  had  been  so  old.  How 
comes  it,  then,  that  no  remains  are  found,  no  antiqui- 
ties of  those  numerous  ages,  preceding  the  Scripture 
accounts  of  time;  that  no  fragments  of  buildings,  no 
public  monuments,  no  intaglios,  statues,  basso-relievos, 
medals,  inscriptions,  utensils,  or  artificial  works  of  any 
kind  are  ever  discovered,  which  may  bear  testimony  to 
the  existence  of  those  mighty  empires, — those  succes- 
sions of  monarchs,  heroes  and  demigods,  for  so  many 
thousand  years?  Let  us  look  forward,  and  suppose  ten 
or  twenty  thousand  years  to  come,  during  which  time  we 
will  suppose  that  plagues,  famines,  wars  and  earthquakes^ 
shall  have  made  great  havoc  in  the  world;  is  it  not 
highly  probable  that  at  the  end  of  such  a  period,  pillars, 
vases  and  statues  now  in  being,  of  granite,  or  porphyry, 
or  jasper,  (stones  of  such  hardness  as  we  know  them  to 
have  lasted  two  thousand  years  above  ground,  without 
any  considerable  alteration,)  would  be  a  record  of  these 
and  past  ages  ?  Or  that  some  of  our  current  coins  might 
be  dug  up,  or  old  walls,  the  foundation  of  buildings, 
show  themselves,  as  well  as  the  shells  and  stones  of 
the  'primeval  world^  which  are  preserved  down  to  our 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  251 

times  ?"  ( Alcepliron,  or  the  Minute  Philosopher,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  84,  85.  1732.  See  also  Lyell's  Princ.  Geol.  p.  739. 
1850.) 

The  same  argument  on  this  point,  but  arranged  accord- 
ing to  the  present  state  of  scientific  knowledge,  is  thus 
beautifully  presented  by  Mr.  Eichardson :  "  The  whole 
vast  series  of  aqueous  deposits,  are  crowded  with  organic 
remains,  with  fragments  of  the  weeds,  plants,  corals,  shells, 
crustace3e,  fish,  reptiles,  birds  and  mammalia,  relics  of  the 
vegetable  and  animal  existence  of  the  ancient  earth ;  hut 
no  fossil  remains  of  the  human  form  have  yet  been  discovered 
in  the  solid  rocks  themselves^  or  in  any,  since  the  accumula- 
tions of  silt  or  mud,  which  date  from  the  most  modern 
aera,  the  yesterday^  as  it  were,  in  the  infinite  history  of  the 
past.  It  is  only  in  these  accumulations  of  the  historic 
period  that  we  discover  the  remains  of  even  the  most 
ancient  families  of  mankind:  that  in  the  British  Isles, 
we  meet  with  the  implements  or  utensils  of  the  ancient 
Britons,  or  the  coins  and  weapons  of  their  Eoman  inva- 
ders ;  that  in  Italy,  we  find  the  Cyclopean  structures  and 
works  of  the  Etruscans,  a  nation  who  appeared  to  have 
preceded  the  Komans  in  the  occupation  of  Italy,  and  to 
have  excelled  them  in  civilization  and  the  arts  of  life ; 
while  vestiges  of  the  Pelasgi  are  alike  discovered  in  sim- 
ilar deposits  in  Greece ;  and  in  the  New  World,  traces 
exist  of  the  Talteques,  a  people  who  seem  to  have  been 
the  predecessors  of  the  Mexicans,  and  their  superiors  in 
knowledge  and  improvement.  In  the  solid  roc\  we  re- 
peat, no  traces  of  man  are  discernible. 

"  Yet  had  the  human  race  been  really  the  aborigines 
of  the  physical  history  of  our  planet ;  had  they  actually 
existed  in  its  primeval  times,  (and,  I  may  add,  this  reason- 


262  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

ing  is  equally  as  forcible  against  the  hypothesis,  that  all 
the  fossiliferous  rocks  were  deposited  during  the  post- 
Adamic  down  to  the  Noachian  oera,  as  it  is  against  the 
hypothesis  Mr.  Richardson  is  opposing,)  then  their  re- 
mains would  unquestionably  have  been  found  scattered 
througho\it  its  various  deposits,  from  the  oldest  to  the 
most  recent  in  the  series.  No  impediment  exists  to  their 
conservation.  Our  bones,  composed  of  the  same  ele- 
ments as  those  of  the  animal  races,  are  equally  capable 
of  being  kept  from  destruction.  The  same  battle-field 
has  preserved  the  bones  of  the  horse  and  his  rider ;  the 
same  cavern,  which  in  earlier  a^ras  gave  shelter,  during 
life,  to  the  hyena  and  the  bear,  and  retained  their  skele- 
tons after  death,  has  alike  preserved  the  remains  of  those 
human  occupants,  who,  at  a  later  period,  found,  in  the 
same  retreat,  a  refuge  and  a  tomb. 

"  But  a  still  stronger  proof  of  the  modem  date  of  our 
species,  (and,  we  may  add,  of  the  pre-Adamic  date  of 
those  vast  beds  of  animal  fossils,)  exists  in  the  obvious 
fact,  that  if  man  had  really  been  an  inhabitant  of  the 
earth  during  its  earliest  history,  (when  these  fossils  were 
deposited,)  his  skeleton,  or  the  mere  fragments  of  his 
osseous  structure,  would  have  coiutitiited  the  least  of  those 
relics  which  he  would  have  bequeathed  to  the  soil,  of 
which  he  was  an  inhabitant.  We  should  have  discovered 
his  mighty  and  majestic  works,  which  so  far  transcend, 
in  duration,  his  own  ephemeral  existence.  We  should 
have  found  his  cities  and  his  structures  overwhelmed  in 
the  waters  of  ancient  seas,  or  buried  beneath  the  ejec- 
tions of  primeval  volcanoes ;  his  majestic  pyramids  sunk 
in  the  beds  of  ancient  rivers ;  his  mountain  temples  hewn 
on  the  surface  of  the  deepest  and  the  oldest  rocks.     We 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  253 

shonld  have  encountered  his  bridges  of  granite  and  of 
iron,  his  palaces  of  limestone  and  of  marble ;  the  tombs 
which  he  reared  over  the  objects  of  his  affection,  the 
shrines  which  he  erected  in  honor  of  his  God ! 

"  But,  in  the  absence  of  these  or  any  other  traces  of 
man  in  any,  save  in  the  most  superficial  deposits,  we  are 
compelled  to  acknowledge  the  chronology  of  Holy  Writ, 
to  recognize  the  complete  and  satisfactory  accordance  of 
science  with  revelation,  and  to  admit  that  the  existence 
of  man  has  not  extended  beyond  the  five  or  six  thousand 
years  upon  the  earth,  which  the  Scriptures  assign  as 
the  period  of  his  creation."  (Richardson's  Geology,  pp. 
89-91.) 

These  extracts  are  long,  but  they  are  appropriate,  and 
they  are  eloquent.  The  argument  they  present  against 
the  contemporaneous  existence  of  man,  and  of  the  races 
of  extinct  animals  and  plants,  whose  fossil  remains  we 
find  imbedded  in  the  several  geologic  strata,  almost  to 
the  very  deepest,  is  forcible  and  conclusive. 

From  all  these  considerations  it  is  plain,  the  theory  of 
independent  periods,  as  the  meaning  of  the  six  days  of 
creation,  and  that  also  of  the  post-Adamic,  or  of  tho 
ISToacho-diluvian  origin  of  the  several  fossil  strata  now 
found  in  the  crust  of  our  globe,  must  be  abandoned. 
(Foot  Prints  of  Creation,  p.  308,  note.) 

What,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  the  narrative  given  in 
the  1st  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  of  the  declaration  in 
Exod.  XX.  11,  "  /ti  six  days  Jehovah  made  heaven  and 
earthy  the  sea^  and  all  things  that  therein  areP 

This  declaration,  embodied  in  the  fourth  command- 
ment, I  take  to  be  an  epitome  of  the  entire  narrative 
given  in  Gen.  ch.  i.  from  ver.  3  to  the  close  of  the  chapter. 


254  CREATION  IN   SIX  DAYS. 

Genesis  1st  chap,  and  v.  1,  informs  us,  that  at  some 
undefined  period  in  the  boundless  past,  occurred  the 
original  production  of  the  material  universe,  by  the 
power  of  God. 

With  the  third  verse  of  that  chapter  seems  to  com- 
mence a  narrative  of  the  manner  in  which,  after  the  last 
great  geologic  convulsion,  which  left  this  globe  in  a  state 
of  wild  and  dark  chaos,  as  described  in  v.  2,  tuithout  form 
and  voidj  the  earth  was  gradually  arranged,  illumined, 
made  fertile,  and  peopled  with  living  tenants,  and  with 
man  also,  in  a  series  of  divine  creative  acts,  running 
through  six  successive  natural  days  of  ordinary  length. 

The  1st  chap,  of  Genesis  from  v.  3d  to  the  end  of  the 
chapter,  does,  then,  present  us  with  a  history  of  the  re- 
ordering (^f  our  planetary  system,  more  especially  of  this 
earth,  after  the  last  great  geologic  catastrophe,  prior  to 
man's  creation. 

That  catastrophe,  as  this  narrative  leads  us  to  conclude, 
was  a  general  one,  and  left  the  whole  earth  in  what  may 
be  called  a  chaotic  state,  the  land  and  water  being  com- 
mingled; and  the  very  atmosphere  seems  to  have  been  so 
far  affected  by  the  general  disturbance,  as  that  it  was  not 
capable  of  transmitting  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  heavenly 
bodies,  until  the  fourth  day. 

During  the  continuance  of  that  chaotic  state,  the  latest 
deposit  of  geologic  strata  known  to  us,  and  prior  to  the 
alluvium  now  in  process  of  formation,  may  not  improb- 
ably have  been  made ;  and  then,  in  the  course  of  six 
successive  days  of  the  ordinary  length,  God  saw  fit  to 
arrange  this  earth,  clothe  it  with  vegetation,  people  it 
with  living  creatures,  and  finally,  on  the  sixth  day,  place 
man  upon  it ;  after  the  appearance  of  the  sun  and  the 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  255 

moon  to  rule  the  day  and  the  night  respectively,  had 
taken  place  on  the  fourth  day ;  the  atmosphere  having, 
by  that  time,  been  divinely  prepared,  duly  to  transmit 
the  light,  as  now.  Hence,  in  language  adapted  to 
express  the  idea  of  the  arrangement  of  the  earth  to  its 
place  in  the  solar  system,  He,  who  in  Gen.  i.  1,  is  de- 
clared to  have  created  the  entire  universe  at  some  un- 
determined period  in  the  past,  and  who,  in  various  other 
passages  of  Scripture,  as  well  as  in  the  record  o/  the 
events  of  the  fourth  day  of  creation,  is  said  to  have  made 
the  stars  also,  is  in  Exod.  xx.  11,  said  to  have  created  in 
six  days  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea  and  all  things 
therein;  because,  in  the  six  consecutive  days,  occupied 
in  reducing  the  chaotic  mass  to  the  condition  in  which 
we  now  behold  our  globe.  He  (the  original  creator  of  all 
things  out  of  nothing,)  was  pleased  to  order  this  earth, 
provide  it  with  living  tenants,  and  to  spread  out  visibly 
before  them,  the  expanse  of  heaven,  adorned  with  all  its 
glorious  luminaries,  by  night  and  by  day.  Although  its 
substance  had  been  existing  long  before,  the  Creator  then 
re-established  in  a  manner  obvious  to  the  perception  of 
its  new  occupants,  the  relation  of  this  earth  with  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  in  the  series  of  creative  acts,  filling  up 
six  successive  days. 

In  this  sense,  and  not  as  directly  referring  to  the  original 
production  of  the  substance  of  the  earthy  and  of  the  system 
to  which  this  earth  belongs^  do  I  understand  the  declaration 
contained  in  \hQ  fourth  commandment.  That  original  pro- 
duction is  recorded  in  the  first  verse  of  Genesis.  But  it 
has  been  asserted  that  the  word  x'lS  (barah)  used  in  Gen. 
i.  1,  means  literally  to  create,  to  produce  from  nothing ; 
while  the  interpretation  I  have  here  given  of  the  narra- 


256  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

tive  of  the  six  days'  creation,  is  equivalent  to  interpret- 
ing it  as  meaning  only  the  same  as  nia:?,  fashioned  out  of 
pre-existing  materials. 

This  objection  I  would  answer  in  the  words  of  Bishop 
Pearson,  *'  We  must  not  attempt,  weakly  to  collect  the 
meaning  of  creation  from  the  use  of  any  one  word.  For 
K'^a  is  used  promiscuously  with  niS5,  which  is  of  the 
greatest  latitude,  denoting  any  kind  of  effect,  and  with 
■>s?,  which  rather  implies  a  formation  out  of  something ; 
and  from  which  comes  the  word  "la;^,  a  potter.  In  Gen. 
ii.  3,  4,  and  Isa.  xlv.  12,  ms5  and  N'^a  are  used  inter- 
changeably— I  made  the  earth  and  created  man  upon  it. 
Compare  also  Ps.  cxv.  15,  and  cxxi.  2,  with  Isa.  xlii.  5, 
and  xlv.  18.  Compare,  also,  Isa.  xvii.  7,  with  Eccl. 
xii.  1.     The  LXX.  translate  fif^a  indifferently  with  noieiv 

and  xTt^ety. 

"  Again,  'i::*'  is  usually  rendered  by  the  Jewish  Targum, 
N^a,  and  by  the  LXX.  though  generally  nlarrsiv^  yet 
sometimes  xrt^e**'.  That  it  has  the  same  signification  will 
appear  by  comparing  Gen.  ii.  4,  with  Isa.  xlv.  12,  and  not 
only  so,  but  by  the  single  verse,  Isa.  xliii.  1.  '  Now  thus 
saith  the  Lord  "lK">a,  that  created  thee,  0  Jacob,  "|">2£'',  and, 
he  that  formed  thee,  0  Israel.' 

*'  Lastly,  all  these  are  conjointly  used  in  the  same  valid- 
ity of  expression,  in  Isa.  xliii.  7,  Every  one  that  is 
called  by  my  name :  for  mxiSj  I  have  created  him  for 
my  glory,  I'^niS"',  I  have  formed  him,  yea  I'^n'^ias,  I  have 
made  him."  (See  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  p.  79,  note  J. 
Kitto's  Cyclop.  Bib.  art.  Creation.) 

To  cut  off  the  last  lingering  doubt  on  this  subject,  it 
may  be  remarked,  that  while  in  Gen.  i.  1,  to  express 
original  creation,  the   word  ^y^  is  used :  in  the  fourth 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  257 

commandment,  Exod.  xx.  11,  the  word  used  is  not  fitnn 
but  nb:?,  which  shows  that  so  far  as  the  words  of  the 
Hebrew  text  can  decide  the  point,  the  idea  there  con- 
veyed is  rather  that  of  the  due  arrangement  and  garnish- 
ing of  the  earth  out  of  pre-existing  materials  than  that  of 
original  creation. 

As  to  the  date  of  the  original  creation  of  the  earth's 
substance,  we  know  literally  nothing.  Nor  is  it  my  inten- 
tion to  enter  now  upon  an  examination  of  the  chronolo- 
gical era  of  Adam's  creation.  In  the  narrative  itself,  as 
given  in  the  Bible,  nothing  is  said  respecting  the  date  of 
creation.  On  this  subject,  the  computations  of  learned 
men  vary  greatly ;  and  the  different  versions  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  even  the  different  copies  of  the  Hebrew 
text  itself,  show  an  unaccountable  variation  in  the  num- 
bers they  record,  and  consequently,  in  the  chronological 
data  they  furnish.  The  Samaritan  copy  of  the  Penta- 
teuch differs  from  the  Hebrew,  and  the  Septuagint  from 
both.  Archbishop  Usher,  as  the  result  of  much  learned 
research,  has  computed  the  creation  of  Adam,  at  about 
B.C.  4004 :  and  this  is  the  date  generally  adopted,  in  the 
Protestant  churches,  at  least,  and  where  the  English  lan- 
guage is  spoken.  This  is  the  date  introduced  into  our 
English  Bible,  and  to  this  date  all  other  events  are  chron- 
ologically adjusted.  The  church  of  Eome  is  under- 
stood rather  to  favor  the  Septuagint  chronology,  which 
allows  a  greater  age  to  our  system.  But  of  the  Septua- 
gint itself,  there  are  two  distinct  lines  of  copies.  Of 
these,  one  furnishes  numbers,  which  when  compared  and 
computed,  would  make  the  date  of  man's  creation  about 
B.C.  5708  ;  and  the  other,  about  B.C.  5878. 

A  computation  of  the  numbers  given  in  the  received 


258  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

Hebrew  text  of  the  Pentateuch,  yields  B.C.  4111,  as  the 
date  of  Adam's  creation :  while  the  history  of  Josephus, 
the  Jewish  writer,  nearly  contemporary  with  Christ,  gives 
B.C.  4658.  So  that  the  chronology  by  Usher,  which  we 
have  been  accustomed  to  follow,  is  by  far  the  most  con- 
tracted of  all* 

It  is  very  obvious  that,  from  a  variety  of  causes,  chron- 
ological computations  are  always  subject  to  great  uncer- 
tainty. But  happily,  the  mere  date  of  creation  is  not  of 
vital  importance,  either  to  the  credit  of  the  Bible,  or  to 
the  interests  of  religion.  Adopt  what  chronological  sys- 
tem you  choose,  the  fact  of  the  creation  of  the  universe, 
and  all  it  contains,  by  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Abraham, 
and  the  fact  that  this  earth  was,  in  six  days,  from  a  pre- 
vious chaotic  state,  prepared  by  Jehovah  for  the  reception 
of  man,  who,  upon  the  sixth  of  those  days,  was  created  and 
placed  in  Eden ;  and  that  this  first  origin  of  man  oc- 
curred somewhere  between  six  and  eight  thousand  years 
ago,  still  stands. 

The  difficulty  we  may  find  in  merely  arranging  chron- 
ological dates,  cannot  afiect  the  truth  of  the  facts  re- 
corded, nor  the  credibility  of  the  narrative  containing 
that  record. 

The  objection  which  is  sometimes  urged  against  the 
distribution  of  the  several  creative  acts  over  six  consecu- 
tive days,  as  though  such  distribution  were  unbecoming 
the  wisdom  and  the  greatness  of  God,  is  utterly  futile. 
If  God  so  willed  it,  as  Moses  relates,  that  the  creative 
process  should  proceed  at  a  certain  rate  only,  and  should 

*  See  the  Eng.  Univ.  Hist.  Ano.,  vol.  i.  pp.  69-72.  Preface,  pp.  61-63. 
See  Hale's  Chronology,  vol.  i.  pp.  210-264.  Jackson's  Chronology,  vol.  I 
pp.  34-68. 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  259 

occupy  any  one  definite  portion  of  time ;  or  that  it  should 
continue  and  be  repeated  through  successive  portions; 
since  His  wisdom  qualifies  Him  to  discern  what  is  best, 
so  his  Almighty  power  enables  Him  to  carry  out  into 
execution  the  plan  He  approves,  and  to  do  it  just  when, 
and  where,  and  as  He  approves. 

For  all  that  has  yet  been  adduced  to  the  contrary,  we 
can  still  cordially  believe  the  account  given  by  Moses  of 
the  remodeling  of  our  earth  from  a  chaotic  condition,  the 
wreck,  possibly,  of  former  worlds  ;  its  being  replenished 
with  living  occupants,  man  included,  by  the  operations 
of  God,  in  six  successive  days ;  and  the  ordering  of  its 
atmosphere,  so  as  that  its  living  tenants  should  receive 
on  the  fourth  day  the  full  benefit  of  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  as  resulting  from  the  earth's  position  among  the 
planets  in  the  solar  system;  and  we  can  still  perceive 
that  these  facts,  so  interesting  to  us,  are  to  us  a  valid  rea- 
son for  religiously  observing  a  weekly  Sabbath,  accord- 
ing to  the  record  in  Exod.  xx.  11,  "/n  six  days  Jehovah 
made  heaven  and  earthy  the  sea  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and 
rested  the  seventh  day :  wherefore  Jehovah  blessed  the  Sabbath 
day,  and  hallowed  it." 

The  Mosaic  account  of  creation,  as  thus  understood,  is 
reasonable  in  itself,  and  consistent  with  all  known  scien- 
tific facts.  It  is  indeed  beautiful,  and  worthy  of  God, 
as  a  comparison  with  the  cosmogonies  held  and  taught 
anfong  the  boasted  nations  of  antiquity  will  show. 

Of  the  Egyptians,  Diodorus  asserts,  they  held  that,  in 
the  beginning,  the  heavens  and  the  earth  had  only  one 
form,  being  united  in  their  nature :  but  having  become 
separated  afterwards,  the  world  took  the  character  we  now 
behold. 


260  CREATION   IN  SIX  DAYS. 

By  the  movement  of  the  atmosphere,  the  igneous  parts 
arose ;  which  gave  to  the  sun,  and  other  heavenly  bodies, 
their  rotary  movement :  and  a  solid  matter  was  precipi- 
tated to  form  the  sea  and  earth,  from  which  fish  and 
other  animals  were  produced;  much  as  now,  in  Egypt, 
on  the  subsiding  of  the  inundation  of  the  Nile,  myriads 
of  insects  come  forth  from  the  mud. 

This  was  also  the  system  of  the  Phoenicians.  This 
system  assigns  no  part,  in  the  formation  of  the  universe, 
to  an  intelligent  Cause. 

Diogenes  Laertius  states,  on  the  authority  of  Manetho 
and  Ilecata^us,  that  the  Egyptians  held  matter  as  i\iQ  first 
•principle:  and  that  the  Sun  and  Moon  were  their  first 
deities. 

But,  though  it  is  difiicult,  from  the  imperfect,  and 
often  conflicting  statements  found  in  Greek  writers,  to 
gather  the  truth  respecting  Egyptian  dogmas ;  and  al- 
though, nowhere  on  the  monuments  thus  far  explored, 
spread  though  the  pictorial  records  are  over  many  acres 
of  surface,  is  there  found  any  symbol,  or  character,  repre- 
senting the  idea  of  One  Supreme  Intelligence  ;*  still,  it  is 
not  improbable  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  did  admit  the 
existence  of  a  Supreme  Intellect,  pervading  the  universe, 
much  as  the  human  soul  pervades  the  body.  Yet  in  con- 
junction with  this,  they  admitted  a  male  generative  prin- 
ciple residing  in  the  Sun ;  and  a  female  generative  prin- 
ciple residing  in  the  Moon.f 

*  See  Wilkinson's  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  2d 
series,  vol.  i.  p.  178. 

t  See  Wilkinson's  Manners  and  Customs,  2d  series,  vol.  i.  pp.  214-217. 
Dr.  Pritchard's  Analysis  of  Egyptian  Mythology,  book  ii.  chap.  1  and 
2,  and  chiefly  p.  165. 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  261 

It  was  chiefly  in  the  Thebaid,  where  the  worship  of 
Cneph  as  the  Supreme  God  prevailed,  that  this  less  ir- 
rational hypothesis  was  held. 

Lower  Egypt  has,  from  time  immemorial,  been  grossly 
idolatrous.     (Eng.  Univ.  Hist.  Anct.  vol.  i.  p.  14.) 

The  Egyptian  mythology  as  stated  by  Lyell  (Princ. 
Geol.  p.  10,)  he  has  gathered  exclusively  from  the  Greek 
writers,  who  certainly  held  many  erroneous  notions  about 
Egypt.  Plutarch  asserts  that  the  Egyptians  maintained 
the  doctrine  of  successive  destructions,  and  restorations 
of  the  world.  These  were  celebrated  in  the  famous 
hymns  of  Orpheus,  said  to  have  been  brought  from  the 
banks  of  the  Nile.  These  catastrophes  were  determined 
by  the  return  of  the  great  cycle  or  great  year,  when, 
after  a  long  period  of  revolutions,  the  heavenly  bodies 
returned  to  the  same  relative  position  in  the  heavens. 
This  great  year  was  variously  estimated.  According  to 
Orpheus,  it  consisted  of  120,000  years;  to  others,  800,000 ; 
and  according  to  Cassander,  it  was  360,000  years."  (See 
Pritchard's  Egyp.  Mythology,  p.  166,  &c.) 

The  ancient  Chaldseans,  or  Babylonians,  held  a  strange 
hypothesis.  The  material  of  the  universe,  they  deemed 
eternal^  unoriginated,  and  incapable  of  destruction.  It 
was  reduced  to  form  by  their  supreme  god,  Bel  us.  Be- 
fore his  intervention,  they  represent  the  earth  as  a  dark 
chaos,  peopled  with  horrid  monsters.  On  reading  their 
description  of  this  chaos,  one  can  hardly  resist  the  idea, 
they  must  have  seen  the  isaurians,  the  mastodons,  and 
other  fossil  monsters  revealed  to  us  by  modern  geologic  re- 
search.    (See  Jackson's  Chronology,  vol.  i.  pp.  120,  216.) 

Many  of  the  ancient  sages  held  the  universe  to  be  eter- 
nal ;  a  necessary  emanation  of  the  Infinite  Essence.     This 


262  CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS. 

was  the  opinion  of  Aristotle,  and  of  some  of  Plato^s 
followers.     (Universal  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  3.) 

Ocellus  Lycanus,  a  little  anterior  to  Plato,  maintained 
that  the  universe  is,  of  itself,  eternal  and  perfect ;  incapa- 
ble of  beginning  or  of  end.  Yet  he  also  maintained  the 
existence  of  God ;  and  that,  from  God,  man  had  received 
his  faculties  and  powers.  His  tenets  plainly  involve 
an  inconsistency.  (See  also  Bishop  Cumberland's  San- 
choniatho,  pp.  1-4,  13-27 ;  id.  p.  3.) 

Of  the  notions  held  on  this  subject,  by  the  Hindoos,  it 
is  not  easy  to  gather  a  clear  idea.  The  Indians  counted 
time  by  periods  including,  each,  many  millions  of  solar 
years.  By  creation  they  understood  a  series  of  renewals,* 
or  renovations  of  the  order  of  things ;  and  man  is  but 
an  accidental  incident  to  these  renovations.  The  first 
three  of  the  great  ages  have  already  passed,  equal  to 
3,888,000  years. 

We  are  in  the  fourth  of  these  ages,  and  of  this  fourth 
age,  4,946  years  are  already  gone,  forming  a  great  or 
divine  age.  Of  these  great  ages,  seventy-four  form  a  reign 
of  Manou:  and  fourteen  reigns  of  Manou,  form  a  kalpa. 
Or,  it  takes  one  thousand  great  ages,  formed  of  forty  mortal 
ages,  to  compose  a  kalpa,  or  period  of  4,320,000,000  of 
yeai-s ;  which  immense  duration,  constitutes  only  one  day 
of  Brahma,  or  rather  of  the  manifestation  of  the  world. 

But  the  period  of  the  disappearance  of  the  world,  i.  e. 
of  its  absorption  into  the  essence  of  Brahma,  is  of  equal 
duration.  Therefore,  according  to  the  Gentoo  belief,  as 
the  present  is  the  fifty-sixth  manifestation,  the  world  has 
already  stood,  in  its  present  renovated  state,  5,620,000 
years;  and  it  ought  yet  to  continue  4,320,000,000  years, 
*  See  Faber's  Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  i.  pp.  121-140. 


CKEATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  263 

in  all  *  So  boundless  are  the  dreamy  notions  presented 
in  the  Hindoo  system  of  cosmogony.  And  yet  there  are 
those  who  pretend  to  regard  them  as  based  on  truth,  and 
confirmed  by  astronomical  calculations.! 

A  comparison  of  the  several  points  presented  in  this 
system  of  the  Hindoos,  will  at  once  detect  incongruities. 

I  may  here  remark,  that  the  outline  of  the  Hindoo 
cosmogony  furnished  to  Sir  C.  Lyell,  by  Professor  Wil- 
son, who  now  occupies  the  chair  of  Sanscrit  literature 
in  the  University  of  Oxford,  England,  agrees  substan- 
tially with  the  sketch  above  presented :  thus,  ''  We  are 
told  in  the  institutions  of  Menu,  that  the  first  sole  Cause, 
with  a  thought  created  the  waters,  and  then  moved  upon 
their  surface  in  the  form  of  Brahma,  the  Creator.  On 
awaking  from  sleep,  Brahma  always  finds  the  world  a 
shapeless  ocean,  and  his  first  effort  is  to  effect  the  emer- 
gence of  the  land,  and  to  form  the  firmament;  after 
which,  he  vivifies  the  earth  in  succession  with  plants, 
animals,  celestial  creatures,  and  men. 

^^  At  the  end  of  a  day  of  Brahma,  which  lasts  for  many 
thousand  ages,  he  is  said  to  rest,  and  then,  all  existing 
forms  are  destroyed.  As  soon  as  he  awakes,  the  world 
is  renewed  to  be  again  destroyed,  and  again  renewed, 
after  each  Jcal^a,  or  day  of  Brahma's  existence,  &c.  &c.":j: 

*  See  Maurice's  India,  vol.  ii.  pp.  341-351 ;  vol.  iv.  p.  699 ;  vol.  vii.  p. 
845.     See  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  ii.  p.  112. 

f  See  Bentley's  Letters  on  Hindu  Astronomy,  preface,  p.  xiv. ;  also  pp. 
181  and  195.  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  vi.  p.  540,  &c.  Delambre's  His- 
tory of  Astronomy,  vol.  i.  pp.  347,  400,  441 ;  also,  Discours  Preliminairc, 
pp.  viii.  and  ix.  Paris,  1817,  4to.  ;  also,  Lepsius,  Chronologic  der  Egypter, 
vol.  i.  pp.  3-6. 

'l  In  the  cosmogonies  of  India  and  of  Chaldaea,  we  find  traces  perhaps 
of  patriarchal  tradition,  respecting  chaos  before  man's  creation ;  perhaps 


264  CREATION   IN  SIX   DAYS. 

The  Chinese,  also,  exhibit  what  they  call  history,  run- 
ning back  to  a  remote  antiquity,  but  less  extravagant 
than  that  of  the  Hindoos.  They  record  events  as  far 
back  as  the  sixty-first  year  of  Hoang-Ti,  the  first  monarch 
of  their  first  cycle,  B.C.  2637.  But  others  of  these 
writers,  as  e.  g.  the  renowned  historian  Tchou-Hi,  go  back 
to  B.C.  3400.  There  are,  again,  other  historians  among 
the  Chinese,  who  record  many  reigns^  or  remote  periods 
before  this,  reaching  back  to  a  first  man^  whom  they 
name  Pan-Kou,  or  Hoen-Tu,  which  means  primordial. 
To  him,  as  the  Hindoos  also  to  Menou,  they  assign  the 
control  of  nature,  and  the  work  of  creation ;  and  the  Chi- 
nese make  this  primordial  man,  Pan-Kou,  the  first  em- 
peror of  China.  His  era,  they  declare,  was  ninety-six 
millions  of  years  before  Confucius,  who  lived  B.C.  479 ; 
so  that,  according  to  these  modest  chroniclers,  the  first 
emperor  of  China  flourished  only  96,002,131  years  since; 
and  this  same  first  Chinese  emperor  created  the  world, 
or  at  least,  reduced  it  to  its  present  order.*    (See  Chine, 

of  doctrines  obtained  in  some  unknown  way  from  the  Jewish  Scriptures ; 
and  possibly  this  idea  of  successive  destructions  and  renovations,  may 
have  been  suggested  by  fossil  animals  (disinterred  in  very  remote  ages. 
See  Lyell's  Principles  of  Geology,  pp.  5,  6,  7,  10th  edition.  See,  also, 
L'Univers  Pittoresque,  Asic,  tom.  iii.  Inde,  pp.  163—172 ;  also,  L'Univ. 
Pit.  Chine,  par  M.  Pauthicr,  pp.  20-23.  A  kalpa  or  day  of  Brahma,  is 
reckoned  at  4,300,000,000  of  our  years. 

*  The  Chinese  have  a  fabulous  chronology  similar  to  that  of  the  Hin- 
doos, and  almost  equally  extravagant.  It  includes  dynasties  of  monarchs, 
the  Tien-hoang,  and  the  Ti-hoang,  each  of  whom  held  the  sceptre  during 
18:000  years;  but  after  this  their  lives  dwindled  to  so  narrow  a  span,  that 
the  reigns  of  nine  monarchs  are  comprehended  in  45,000  years.  The  ten 
kis  or  ages,  which  elapsed  from  Pan-Kou  to  Confucius,  is  variously  esti- 
mated from  276,000  years,  to  96,961,740.  These  eras  may  certainly  vie 
with   those  assigned  in  the  Vcdas,  and  Puranas.     There  is,  however, 


CREATION  IN  SIX  DAYS.  265 

de  M.  Pauthier,  p.  20.)  And  yet  there  are  men  who 
would  have  us  adopt  these  absurd  Chinese  fables,  as  veri- 
table history,  and  as  entitled  to  credit  in  preference  to 
the  modest  and  rational  account  given  by  Moses ;  who 
tells  us  that  in  the  beginning,  or  originally,  the  whole 
material  universe,  the  earth  and  all  the  heavenly  bodies 
were'  created  by  one  God,  who  was  known  and  wor- 
shipped among  the  Jews  under  the  name  of  Jehovah. 
But  Moses  specified  no  time,  no  point  in  the  boundless 
past,  when  this  grand  effect  was  produced.  Nor  does 
Moses  say  whether  the  creative  act  was  performed  in- 
stantly and  at  once,  or  by  a  process  involving  the  em- 
ployment of  subordinate  agencies,  that  may  have  spread 
through  long  successive  cycles  of  ages.  The  one  grand 
fact  only,  that  the  entire  universe  is  the  work  of  Je- 
hovah, does  Moses  state.  So  that,  in  truth,  even  if  the 
nebular  hypothesis,  which  represents  suns  and  systems 
as  being  produced,  by  a  very  slow,  and  long-continued 
process,  from  the  most  impalpable  of  all  substances,  an 
attenuated  fire,  mist,  a  mass  of  gas  charged  with  caloric, 
should  be  established  by  sufiicient  proofs,  the  adoption 
of  it  as  true,  would  in  no  way  militate  against  our 
cordial  belief  in  the  Mosaic  cosmogony. 

For  all  that  Moses  teaches  to  the  contrary,  time  may 
(as  an  elegant  writer  on  geology  expresses  it)  he  an  essen- 
tial element  in  the  process  of  original  creation/^ 

this  important  distinction,  that,  while  the  successive  Hindoo  yugs,  or 
ages,  extending  to  millions  of  years,  form  the  sacred  chronology  of  that 
people,  the  Chinese  treat  their  own  fabulous  records  not  only  with  con- 
tempt, as  puerile,  but  with  horror,  as  profane.  (Ancient  History  of  China, 
Edinburgh  Cabinet  Library,  vol.  i.  p.  40.) 

*  Mr,  Mitford,  in  his  learned  History  of  Greece,  gives  this  noble  testi- 
mony to  the  value  of  the  Mosaic  writings : — 

12 


266  CREATION  IN   SIX  DAYS. 

After  the  wonderful  epitome  of  cosmogODj,  given  in 
the  first  verse  of  Genesis,  Moses  proceeds,  in  Gen.  i.  3-47, 
(and  he  briefly  reiterates  the  same  doctrine  in  Exod.  xx. 
11,)  to  describe  the  manner  in  which  the  earth,  from  a 
previous  chaotic  state,  was  reduced  to  its  present  order, 
clothed  with  verdure,  peopled  with  living  races,  and  with 
man,  and  illumined  by  the  rays  of  the  sun  and  the  other 
luminaries  of  heaven;  and  that  this  renovation  was  ef- 
fected by  a  series  of  creative  acts,  which  occupied  six  suc- 
cessive days,  and  were  discontinued  on  the  seventh  day. 
For  this  very  reason,  lue  are  required  to  keep  holy  a 
weekly  Sabbath.  **  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep 
it  holy,  for  in  six  days  Jehovah  made  heaven  and  earthy  the 
sea  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day :  where- 
fore Jehovah  blessed  the  Sabbath  day,  and  hallowed  it." 

"  Since  the  deep  researches  of  modern  philosophers  in  natural  history, 
assisted  by  the  extensive  discoveries  of  modern  navigators,  through  the 
great  enlargement  of  our  acquaintance  with  the  face  of  our  globe,  have 
opened  so  many  sources  of  wonder,  without  affording  any  adequate  means 
to  arrive  at  the  causes  of  the  phenomena,  new  objections  have  been  made 
to  the  Mosaic  history  of  the  first  ages  of  the  world,  which,  it  has  been 
urged,  must  have  been  intended  to  relate,  not  to  the  whole  world,  but  to 
those  parts,  with  which  the  Jewish  people  had  more  immediate  concern. 
Many,  however,  and  insuperable  as  the  difiiculties  occurring  in  that  con- 
cise historical  sketch  may  be,  some  arising  from  extreme  antiquity  of 
idiom,  some,  perhaps,  from  injury  received  in  multifarious  translations, 
and  others  from  that  allegorical  style,  always  familiar  and  always  in 
esteem  in  the  East,  invention  still  has  never  been  able  to  form  any  theory 
equally  consistent  with  the  principles  of  the  most  enlightened  philosophy, 
or  equally  consonant  to  the  most  authentic  testimonies  remaining  from 
remotest  ages,  whether  transmitted  by  human  memory  or  borne  in  the 
foce  of  nature."    (Mitford's  Greece,  vol.  i.  pp.  2,  3.) 


LECTURE   VII. 

POPULOUSNESS   OF   THE    EARTH  IN  THE  DAYS   OF   CAIN, 
AND  THE  LONGEVITY  OF  THE  ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS. 

Gen.  iv.  15. — "  The  Lord  set  a  mark  upon  Cain,  lest  any  finding  him 

should  kill  him." 
Gen.  v.  27. — "  And  all  the  days  of  Methuselah  were  nine  hundred  sixty 

and  nine  years;    and  he  died." 

The  selection  of  these  two  very  striking  passages  from 
the  antediluvian  history,  is  a  sufficiently  intelligible  inti- 
mation of  my  purpose  to  examine  some  of  the  more  spe- 
cious objections  which  have  been  boastingly  urged  against 
the  book  of  Genesis,  and  against  the  historical  facts  it 
records. 

Of  these  objections,  two  demand  a  more  special  at- 
tention. 

The  one  is  drawn  from  the  story  of  Cain,  the  murderer 
of  his  brother  Abel,  and  from  the  populousness  of  the 
earth  at  that  time,  which  the  story  seems  to  imply : — a 
populousness  much  greater,  it  is  said,  than  the  doctrine 
that  Adam  and  Eve  were  the  sole  progenitors  of  the  en- 
tire human  race,  will  warrant. 

The  other  objection  has  respect  to  the  long  lives  of  the  an- 
tediluvian patriarchs :  a  longevity  which,  we  are  told,  is 
utterly  incredible  ;  and  which  can  be  shown  to  be  fabu- 


268      POPULOUSNESS  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  CAIN,   AND 

lous,  from  the  sure  testimony  of  contemporaneous  monu- 
ments. 

I.  The  story  of  Gain^  though  short,  is  an  affecting  and 
instructive  one. 

The  first  man  that  was  born  of  woman,  he  was  the 
first  to  stain  the  annals  of  humanity  with  a  dark  and 
bloody  crime. 

From  the  Mosaic  narrative  it  would  appear  that  Cain 
was  a  tiller  of  the  ground,  while  Abel,  his  younger 
brother,  busied  himself  chiefly  in  the  care  of  flocks  of 
sheep.  Instructed,  no  doubt,  from  their  infancy,  to  re- 
vere and  to  worship  God  their  maker,  one  occasion  there 
was,  on  which  both  the  brothers  brought  sacrifice  to  God. 
The  offering  of  the  younger,  which  was  of  the  firstlings 
of  his  flock,  was  accepted  of  the  Most  High.  Cain,  who 
brought  of  the  fruits  of  the  ground,  was  not  accepted. 
"  The  Lord  had  respect  unto  Abel  and  tx)  his  offenng :  but 
unto  Cain  and  his  offering,  He  had  not  respect/"  Gen.  iv. 
4,5. 

The  reasons  for  this  difference  were  doubtless  just  and 
good :  but  the  result  was,  that  "  Cain  luas  very  wroth,  and 
his  countenance  felir  A  gloomy,  dissatisfied,  and  even 
revengeful  spirit  was  awakened  in  his  breast.  The  wri- 
ter to  the  Hebrews  (see  Heb.  xi.  4)  accounts  for  the  dif- 
ference in  the  acceptableness  of  these  two  offerings  :  ^^  By 
faitli  Abel  offered  a  more  acceptable  offering  Hian  Gain^*  But 
we  know  thsit  faith  has  respect  to  the  word  of  God. 

*  On  this  passage,  (^Gen.  iv.  7,)  Mons.  Cahen,  the  learned  author  of  a 
recent  French  translation  of  the  Bible,  remarks :  "  Both  the  brothers  had 
brought  an  oblation  ;  but  the  younger  brought  of  the  most  valuable  of 
his  possessions  :  and  the  elder  at  hazard,  without  choice,  and  without  hav- 
ing cut  the  offering  in  pieces,  according  to  the  customary  rite.  (Jarchi.) 


^  LONGEVITY  OF  THE   ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        269 

There  must,  then,  have  been  some  divine  precept  given 
to  the  first  human  family,  respecting  sacrifices,  a  precept 
which,  in  the  offering  of  Abel,  was  complied  with,  and  in 
that  of  Cain  was  disregarded. 

Hence,  it  has  been  reasonably  argued,  that  the  worship 
of  God  by  bloody  sacrifices,  symbolical  of  the  one  great 
atoning  sacrifice  for  sin,  afterwards  to  be  made  in  the 
death  of  Christ  the  lamb  of  God,  had  been  already  insti- 
tuted by  direct  command  of  God,  at  this  early  period ; 
and  not  improbably  this  institution  was  appointed  imme- 
diately after  the  fall. 

A  supposition  which  is  strengthened  by  the  recorded 
fact,  that  after  sentence  had  been  pronounced  by  the  Most 
High  upon  the  sinning  pair,  a  sentence  which  assured 
them  that  they  were  mortal,  Jehovah  himself  conde- 
scended to  clothe  them  with  skins,  probably  of  animals 
slain,  by  God's  teaching  then  vouchsafed  to  them,  in 
order  to  be  offered  in  sacrifice  to  God ;  in  anticipation, 
and  symbolic  representation,  of  the  promised  seed  of  the 
woman. 

It  is  remarkable,  also,  that  no  record  is  found  in  holy 
writ  of  permission  given  to  man  to  use  the  flesh  of  ani- 
mals as  food  until  after  the  deluge.  (See  Faber's  Pagan 
Idolatry,  vol.  i.  p.  43,  note.)  We  know,  also,  that  from 
tbe  remotest  antiquity,  and  in  nearly  every  nation  under 
heaven,  as  far  back  as  historic  records,  or  even  tradition 
reaches,  the  practice  of  offering  in  sacrifice  animals  slain 
for  the  purpose,  has  prevailed. 

It  is  a  further,  and  a  very  rational  inference  from  these 

The  Samaritan  text  employs  here  a  word,  which  expresses  an  action,  as 
it  were,  to  cut  into  morsels.  The  Septuagint  seems  also  to  follow  this 
reading.    (La  Bible,  Traduc.  Nouvelle.    Paris,  1831,  par.  M.  Cahen.) 


270      POPULOUSNESS  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  CAIN,   AND 


considerations,  that  if  God  appointed  in  the  family  of 
Adam  worship  by  bloody  sacrifices,  he  must  have  ap- 
pointed also  a  ritual^  or  mode  of  worship,  a  priesthood^  or 
persons  to  officiate  in  this  worship,  and  probably  also  a 
place  where  this  worship  should  be  publicly  offered  by 
the  whole  assembled  family  or  community.  And  al- 
though the  narrative  in  Genesis  makes  no  explicit  men- 
tion of  these  several  divine  regulations,  yet  many  cir- 
cumstances incidentally  made  known  in  these  ancient 
documents  comport  with  this  view,  and  confirm  it. 

The  solemn  blessing  given  by  the  dying  patriarchs  to 
the  first-born  son,  (Gen.  xxvii.  27-29,  33-36,  xxviii.  4, 
and  xlviii.  14,  17-19,)  looks  very  much  like  an  open 
consecration,  or  induction  to  a  sacred  office.  The  bless- 
ing of  the  first-born  included  also  a  double  portion  of 
goods,  (Deut.  xxi.  17,)  obviously,  as  it  would  seem,  to 
meet  the  expenses  incident  to  the  worship  which  his  po- 
sition, as  the  head  of  the  whole  family,  required  the  first- 
born son  to  maintain.  Hence,  also,  the  profound  defer- 
ence shown  in  ancient  times  to  the  patriarch,  or  head  of 
the  family ;  and  hence,  also,  the  great  authority  he  exer- 
cised over  all  his  descendants,  however  numerous. 

That  there  was  also  some  one  particular  spot  where 
stood  the  altar,  and  where,  in  the  presence  of  his  whole 
family,  the  patriarch,  or  the  father,  officiated  in  the  sol- 
emn worship  of  God,  by  the  offering  in  sacrifice  on  that 
altar,  suitable  animals  slain  for  the  purpose,  is  rendered 
highly  probable  by  several  considerations. 

There  is  also  good  reason  to  believe  that  this  worship 
was  offered  at  regular  stated  seasons ;  and  that  these  sea- 
sons were  the  weekly  recurring  Sabbaths,  every  thought- 
ful reader  of  the  word  of  God  will  readily  perceive. 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE  ANCIEISTT  PATRIARCHS.        271 

That  there  was  in  patriarchal  times,  and  even  in  the 
family  of  Adam,  some  one  place  more  especially  devoted 
to  this  worship  of  God  by  sacrifice,  has  been  shown  to 
be  highly  probable  by  Mr.  Blunt,  of  Cambridge,  Eng- 
land, in  his  very  interesting  work,  entitled  "  Undesigned 
Coincidences  J^ 

"  To  stand,^^  or  to  do  things  "  before  the  LordJ^  is  a  phrase 
oft  occurring  in  the  patriarchal  history,  and  generally,  (as 
Mr.  B.  has  observed,)  in  what  seems  to  be  a  local  sense. 
We  read  of  Abraham,  and  again  of  Jacob,  "  building  an 
altar  to  the  Lord^'^  and  offering  sacrifice  thereon,  (Gen.  xii. 
7 ;  xxii.  9 ;  xxxv.  1,  8.)  Jacob  built  an  altar  at  Bethel  to 
the  Lord.  When  he  came  out  of  the  ark  after  the  flood, 
(Gen.  viii.  20,)  Noah  builded  an  altar  to  the  Lord.  When 
the  angels,  who  had  forewarned  Abraham  of  the  ap- 
proaching doom  of  Sodom,  had  left  Abraham,  and  were 
gone  away,  ^^  Abraham  "  as  we  read,  ^^  stood  yet  before  the 
Lord^'  (Gen.  xviii.  22,)  i.  e.  he  stayed  to  plead  with  God 
on  behalf  of  those  devoted  cities,  and  to  plead  in  the 
place  best  suited  to  such  a  service,  the  place  where  God 
was  by  him  usually  worshipped. 

Accordingly,  it  follows  immediately  after,  ^' and  Abra- 
ham drew  near^  and  saidJ^  Again,  we  read,  that  the  next 
day  ^^  Abraham  gat  up  early  in  the  morning^  (probably  his 
usual  hour  of  prayer,)  to  the  place  where  he  stood  before  the 
Lord^^  i.  e.  the  same  place  where  he  had  been  pleading 
the  day  before ;  and,  in  all  probability,  the  altar  he  had 
built  when  he  first  came  to  Mamre,  for  at  Mamre  he  still 
resided. 

So  also  when  Isaac  purposed  to  bless  his  son  before  he 
died,  it  was  to  be  done  before  the  Lord^  (Gen.  xxvii.  7,)  i.  e.  be- 
fore the  altar  erected  by  Isaac  at  Beersheba,  (Gen.  xxvi.  25.) 


272      POPULOUSNESS  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  CAIN,   AND 

So  also,  afterwards,  among  the  children  of  Israel  in  the 
wilderness,  before  the  great  tabernacle  was  built,  when 
any  man  would  ^^  seek  the  Lord^"  ho  went  out  to  the  tent 
erected  for  that  purpose  by  Moses,  outside  of  the  camp, 
where,  with  appropriate  solemnities,  he  could  perform 
his  devotions  "  before  the  LordJ''  (Exod.  xxxiii.  7.) 

The  offerings  presented  by  Cain  and  Abel  respectively, 
seem  to  have  been  brought  to  one  and  the  same  place. 
One  would  judge,  at  least,  that  they  were  in  view  of  each 
other,  so  that  the  acceptance  of  Abel's  offering,  and  the 
rejection  of  Cain's,  were  known  to  both  of  them. 

This  appears  to  have  been  an  act  of  private  devotion, 
performed  by  each  for  himself,  not  the  public  worship 
attended  by  the  whole  family ;  else  it  would  have  been 
conducted  by  Adam  in  person,  as  the  head  of  the  family, 
just  as  in  later  ages.  Job  offered  sacrifice  for  his  sons  and 
his  daughters,  daily,  lest  they  should  have  offended  God 
by  sin,  (Job  i.  5.)  Yet  private  though  this  worship  of- 
fered by  Cain  and  Abel  was,  it  was  still  offered  hef(yre 
the  Lord^  i.  e.  in  the  place  consecrated  to  worship.  Hence 
when  afterwards,  as  a  consequence  of  his  great  sin,  Cain 
wandered  away  from  his  first  home,  and  from  the  society 
of  his  parents  and  his  kindred,  he  is  said  to  have  gone  out 
from  the 'presence  of  the  Lord;  for  in  thus  wandering  away, 
he  left  behind  him  the  place  and  the  altar,  where  God 
was  worshipped,  and  where  even  the  symbol  of  God's 
presence  may  have  been  visible  to  the  eye,  as  it  was  after- 
wards in  the  Shekinah,  or  cloud  of  glory,  above  the 
mercy-seat  in  the  Holiest  of  all,  in  the  tabernacle  first, 
and  then  in  the  temple.  To  approach  the  consecrated 
spot  where  the  altar  stood,  was  "  to  dravj  near  unto  the 
Lord^'^  it  was  to  "to  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord." 


.     LONGEVITY  OF  THE  ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        273 

To  remove  to  another  land  was  to  go  out  from  the  presence 
of  the  Lord.  So  to  remove  was  to  leave  behind  him  the 
place  and  the  institutions  of  God's  worship ;  i.  e.  saith 
Poole,  ''  egressus  est  e  loco  presentioe  Divince^  hoc  est,  e  loco 
EcclesicG  congregatair 

Hence  we  can  see  how  utterly  void  of  force  are  the 
cavils  against  the  credibility  of  Genesis,  as  an  inspired 
book,  on  the  ground  of  such  expressions  as  this,  "  Cain 
went  out  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord^^  just  as  though  the 
story  of  Cain,  as  recorded  in  Genesis,  taught,  or  at  least 
implied,  that  the  Lord  is  in  some  places  and  not  in 
others.  (See  this  objection  urged  in  "Two  Lectures, 
&c.,"by  Dr.  J.  C.Nott,  p.  61.) 

The  rejection  of  his  offering  seems  to  have  kindled  in 
the  bosom  of  Cain,  fierce  and  deadly  resentment,  no  less 
than  sullen  discontent.  This  wicked  temper  God  conde- 
scended to  notice,  and  he  was  pleased  to  remonstrate 
with  Cain  on  account  of  it.  ''  If  thou  doest  well  shalt  thou 
not  he  accepted?  And  if  thou  doest  not  luell,  sin  lieth  at 
the  doorT 

This  latter  expression  is  generally  understood  to  imply 
that  even  the  consciousness  of  unworthiness  need  not 
plunge  him  into  despair,  since,  for  the  expiation  of  guilt, 
a  sin-offering  was  provided,  sin  {i.  e,  a  sin-offering)  lieth  at 
the  door :  for  the  word  here  standing  in  the  Hebrew  text 
is  used  to  denote  both  these  ideas,  viz.,  the  sin  itself;  and 
also,  sometimes,  the  victim  offered  in  expiation  of  sin. 

The  ^Qxj  terms,  therefore,  in  which  this  divine  admo- 
nition is  expressed,  corroborate  the  idea  that  even  Cain 
presented  his  offering  hefore  the  Lord,  i.  e.  in  a  consecrated 
place ;  e.  g.  at  an  altar,  sheltered,  most  probably,  by  a 
rude  tent,  or  hut,  at  the  door  or  entrance  of  which,  the 

12* 


274       POPULOUSNESS  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  CAIN,   AND 

beasts  intended  for  victims  were  usually  laid,  before  tbe 
ceremony  of  the  offering  commenced;  just  as  afterwards, 
among  the  Jews,  the  victim  about  to  be  sacrificed,  was  laid 
down  before  the  door  of  the  tabernacle,  (Levit.  i.  3.)  All 
this  tender  remonstrance  from  the  Most  High,  failed  to 
soften  the  heart  of  Cain;  and  soon  afterwards,  we  find,  he 
killed  his  brother  Abel,  when  they  were  in  the  open  field. 
The  deed  of  blood  was  probably  committed  in  secret,  un- 
known for  a  time,  even  to  their  parents.  But  to  God  all 
things  are  open.  He  called  the  murderer  to  account, 
charged  home  upon  him  the  foul  crime,  pronounced  him 
accursed  upon  the  earth,  and  the  earth  accursed  to  him, 
so  that  its  tillage  should  not  yield  to  his  hands  a  full  re- 
turn. "^  fugitive  and  a  vagabond  shall  thou  he  in  the 
earthy 

At  length  the  conscience  of  the  wretched  firatricide 
seemed  to  awake ;  he  declared  that  his  punishment  was 
too  heavy  for  him  to  bear,  and  he  expressed  an  appre- 
hension that  every  one  who  met  him,  would  aim  to  take 
his  life.  This  fear,  at  least,  God  was  pleased  to  quell. 
"  Therefore  whosoever  shall  slay  Cain^  vengeance  shall  he 
taken  on  him  sevenfold.  And  the  Lord  set  a  mark  upon  Cain^ 
lest  any  finding  him^  should  kill  him.'^ 

As  to  what  may  have  been  this  mark,  various  and 
most  fanciful  have  been  the  conjectures  hazarded,  espe- 
cially by  the  Jewish  rabbins.  Some  supposed  that  Cain 
was  turned  black,  as  a  negro ;  others  that  a  letter  was  made 
to  appear  on  his  forehead  as  if  stamped  or  branded  there  ; 
and  others,  again,  have  imagined,  that  this  mark  was  a 
bloody  wound,  ghastly  and  horrible,  impressed  upon  his 
face.  Idle  suppositions  all !  especially  since  the  words  em- 
ployed in  the  sacred  record,  rather  convey  the  idea  of  a 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE  ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        275 

pledge  or  token  given  of  God  to  Cain,  in  order  to  assure 
him  that  his  life  should  be  secure  from  violence.  The 
word  here  translated  a  mar\  is  the  same  that  is  else- 
where rendered  a  sign^  (Gen.  i.  14.)  M.  Cahen  translates 
it, — "  He  gave  to  Cain  a  sign  that  none  should  hill  him  J'' 
adding  in  a  note,  "  A  sign.  A  man  known,  designated 
and  marked  as  a  great  criminal  (un  grand  coupable,) 
undergoes  a  punishment  the  most  enduring,  the  least 
tolerable, — the  contempt  of  all  society  1" — (Traduc.  Nou- 
velle  La  Bible,  Cahen.) 

Of  the  nature  of  this  token  we  are  in  total  ignorance. 
N'o  law,  so  far,  at  least,  as  the  sacred  record  shows,  had 
as  yet  been  given  to  man,  awarding  death  to  the  murder- 
er. This  was  done  afterwards,  on  the  subsiding  of  the 
Flood,  (Gen.  ix.  6 ;)  and  this  statute  was  re-enacted  in  the 
code  of  laws  given  to  the  Jews,  (Exod.  xx.  13 ;  Numb. 
XXXV.  16-18.) 

As  yet,  God  did  not  see  fit  to  proclaim  this  penalty, 
nor  to  order  its  infliction.  Cain,  the  first  murderer,  was 
suffered  to  live,  a  prey  to  remorse,  and  shunned  by  his 
fellow-men  !  He  became  a  fugitive  from  his  home  and 
his  kindred,  and  settled  in  the  land  of  ISTod,  to  the  east 
of  Eden,  which  many  have  fancied  must  have  been 
Shushan,  Susiana,  or  Chussistan,  in  Persia.  The  French 
translator,  M.  Cahen,  suggests  from  the  Septuagint  form 
of  this  name,  Naib^  (Naid,)  that  it  may  possibly  be  the 
same  as  Ned i da,  in  Arabia,  which  is  to  the  east  of  Nu- 
bia. From  this  it  would  seem  that  M.  Cahen  supposes 
the  garden  of  Eden  to  have  been  Nubia  ! 

In  this  land  of  Nod,  wherever  it  may  have  been,  Cain 
had  a  numerous  posterity,  and  there  he  built  a  city, 
called  after  the  name  of  his  son,  Enoch.     The  posterity 


276      POPULOUSNESS  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  CAIlsr,   AND 

of  Cain — as  though  the  soil  had  been  cursed  to  them  no 
less  than  to  their  father,  became  skilled  in  the  various 
mechanic  arts,  rather  than  in  agriculture :  and  the  fact 
that  Cain  inclosed  himself  within  the  ramparts  of  a  city, 
well  comports  with  the  character  of  one  living  in  the 
constant  fear  of  violence. 

The  Jews  have  a  tradition  that  Cain  became  a  turbu- 
lent and  mischievous  person ;  that  he  organized  and 
headed  a  band  of  robbers,  and  harassed  his  more  orderly 
neighbors,  until  he  filled  the  land  with  violence. 

Another  tradition  represents  him  as  at  length  wander- 
ing, a  wretched  outcast,  in  the  forests,  disfigured  by  the 
murderer's  mark,  and  grown  shaggy  as  a  wild  beast ;  and 
that  thus,  being  encountered  in  the  forest  by  Lamech, 
whose  sight  was  defective,  he  was  by  him  taken  for  a 
wild  beast,  and  so  was  unwittingly  slain  ;  and  hence  the 
speech  of  Lamech  to  his  wives.  (Gen.  iv.  23,  24.)  All 
this  is  mere  fable. 

But  now,  this  narrative  of  Moses  does  itself  present  a 
serious  difficulty. 

The  murder  of  Abel,  and  the  sentence  pronounced  upon 
Cain  took  place  before  the  birth  of  Seth,  the  third  son  of 
Adam,  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  (Gen.  iv.  25.)  At  the 
birth  of  Seth,  Adam  had  lived  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine  years  only.  Where,  then,  it  is  asked,  were  the  peo- 
ple from  whom  Cain  could  fear  violence?  Abel  and 
Cain  are  the  only  two  children  of  Adam  mentioned  in 
the  Bible,  as  yet.  Abel  was  now  dead :  so  that,  besides 
Cain  himself,  the  only  human  beings  then  on  earth  were 
Adam  and  Eve  !  From  whom  could  Cain  possibly  fear 
violence  ? 

Besides  all  this :  "  When  Cain  had  settled  in  the  land 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE   ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        277 

of  Kod,  mention  is  made  of  his  wife.  Where  did  he  ob- 
tain this  wife  ?  No  daughters  of  Adam  are  mentioned 
until  after  the  birth  of  Seth !  The  whole  story  found 
in  the  4th  chapter  of  Genesis,  does,  then,  plainly  imply 
that  there  were  other  men  on  earth,  at  that  time,  besides 
Adam  and  Eve,  and  their  descendants.  Otherwise,  Cain 
could  not  have  been  troubled  by  the  fear  that  some  one 
would  kill  him ;  and  otherwise,  he  could  not  have  ob- 
tained a  wife  ;  unless  we  suppose^  for  which  we  have  no 
warrant,  that  Adam  had  many  other  children,  not  men- 
tioned in  the  Bible.  And  even  then^  we  must  admit  the 
monstrous  idea  of  incest  in  the  family  of  Adam  himself 
— brothers  marrying  their  own  sisters  !" 

Weighty  though  this  difficulty  may,  for  a  moment,  ap- 
pear, it  has  in  reality  but  very  little  force.  It  is  disin- 
genuously put.  It  assumes,  against  all  probability,  that 
the  first  human  pair,  they  on  whom  God  himself  had 
laid  the  special  benediction  of  fertility,  "  ^e  ye  fruitful 
and  muUiply^^ — a  pair  the  most  perfect  and  the  most  vig- 
orous the  world  ever  saw, — should  have  lived  together 
for  the  space  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  of  vigor 
unabated,  and  yet  the  whole  fruit  of  their  union  should 
have  been  three  sons  only,  with  no  daughter ;  and  of 
these  sons,  the  third  was  not  born  until  the  last  of  these 
one  hundred  and  thirty  years  !     This  surpasses  all  belief. 

Moreover,  the  assumption  here  made  accords  not  to 
the  text  of  Moses  :  that  text  not  only  allows  the  suppo- 
sition, but  it  distinctly  asserts  that  Adam  had  other  chil- 
dren, sons  and  daughters  both.  (Gen.  v.  4.)  The  record 
of  this  fact  does,  indeed,  follow  the  record  of  the  birth  of 
Seth ;  but  this  begetting  of  sons  and  daughters  is  not 
necessarily  limited,  and  it  cannot  truly  be  limited,  to  the 


278 

eight  hundred  years  after  the  birth  of  Seth.  It  is  most 
naturally  understood  as  applying  to  the  one  hundred 
and  thirty  years  before,  as  well  as  the  eight  hundred 
years  after  that  event.  It  is  a  general  declaration,  teach- 
ing us  that  Adam  and  Eve  had  many  other  children  be- 
sides the  three  sons,  the  names  of  whom  alone  are  re- 
corded. The  narrative  in  Genesis  does,  therefore,  freely 
allow,  nay  it  imperatively  requires  us  to  hold,  that  in 
the  earlier  part  of  his  life  Adam  had  many  children, 
daughters  no  less  than  sons.  The  first  human  pair  were 
created  perfect  and  mature  in  all  their  powers. 

The  circumstances  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  and  on 
which  rests  the  very  difficulty  now  under  examination, 
plainly  show  that  during  the  first  one  hundred  and  thirty 
years  of  Adam's  life,  his  family  must  have  increased 
rapidly,  and  his  descendants  must  have  multiplied  to  a 
great  and  extraordinary  extent :  because,  the  whole  spirit 
of  the  Mosaic  narrative  is  inconsistent  with  the  supposi- 
tion of  any  other  human  beings,  except  Adam  and  Eve 
and  their  descendants.  Population  had  evidently  reached 
a  considerable  number,  by  the  time  of  AbeFs  death.  But 
this  population  had,  as  evidently,  sprung  solely  from 
Adam  and  his  wife. 

An  old  eastern  tradition  has  it,  that  Cain  and  Abel,  at 
least,  were  born,  each  with  a  twin  sister.  And  certainly, 
since  God  had  expressly  blessed  Adam  and  Eve  that  they 
should  he  fruitful^  and  multiply^  and  replenish  the  earth  and 
subdue  it,  it  is  irrational  to  suppose  that  due  provision 
would  not  be  made  for  the  supply  of  wives  to  the  sons 
of  Adam,  as  they  severally  reached  manhood. 

Nor  is  it  philosophical,  or  rational  either,  to  undertake 
to  determine  the  rate  of  the  increase  of  the  human  family 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE  ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        279 

in  the  very  first  ages  of  the  world,  according  to  those  laws 
which  now,  under  circumstances  so  entirely  different, 
regulate  and  restrict  the  increase  of  population.  Take 
the  Mosaic  narrative  as  it  is,  as  one  whole;  make  but 
the  most  natural  supposition  in  each  case,  to  account  for 
the  several  events  recorded,  and  it  will  be  found  that  no 
extravagant  calculations,  no  monstrous  deviations  from 
the  well-known  course  of  nature,  will  be  needed,  to  show 
the  entire  consistency  of  all  the  parts,  and  the  strong 
probability  of  the  whole.  Figure  to  yourself  one  human 
pair  placed  on  the  earth,  in  perfect  health  and  vigor, 
with  climate  and  all  other  circumstances  favorable,  to 
serve  as  the  propagators  of  the  human  race;  allow  to 
them  and  their  offspring  but  the  ordinary  degree  of 
fecundity,  and  all  becomes  plain,  and  consistent. 

As  to  the  charge  of  incestuous  marriages  in  the  first 
human  family,  the  necessity  of  the  case  required  such 
marriages  at  first.  Indeed,  even  on  the  supposition  of  the 
creation  of  many  distinct  original  pairs,  as  progenitors  of 
the  several  races  of  men,  the  same  would  be  indispensa- 
ble, in  each  original  family  ;  since  the  countries  of  their 
origin  must  have  been  too  widely  remote  from  each  other, 
to  have  allowed  the  intermingling  of  these  several  races, 
until  at  each  central  point  of  origin,  many  generations  had 
arisen. 

But  the  second  generation  at  least,  in  each  of  these 
central  points,  could  have  sprung  only  from  what  the  ob- 
jection specifies  as  the  incestuous  union  of  brothers  and 
sisters,  the  offspring  severally,  of  each  of  these  original 
pairs.  Besides,  the  great  object  proposed  by  the  supposed 
creation  of  several  original  human  pairs,  at  distinct  and 
widely  separated  points,  would  be  defeated,  if,  to  avoid 


280       POPULOUSNESS   IN   THE   DAYS   OF   CAIN,    AND 

incestuous  marriages,  the  first  offspring  of  these  different 
pairs,  had  intermarried.  The  immediate  intermingling 
of  these  several  roots  provided  for  the  production  of  dis- 
tinct races  of  men,  would  have  rendered  the  formation 
of  distinct  races  impossible.  To  avoid  at  once,  incest  in 
the  first  marriages,  and  the  intermingling  of  races  meant 
to  be  kept  entirely  distinct,  no  way  is  left  but  the  sup- 
position advanced  by  Professor  Agassiz,  viz.,  that  man 
was  produced,  not  by  the  creation  of  one  original  pair, 
or  of  several  original  pairs,  but  that  whole  communities 
of  men,  just  as  bees  in  swarms,  were  created  in  several 
different  zoological  provinces.  Unless  this  supposition, 
which  is  void  of  all  probability,  and  which  is  at  least, 
directly  in  the  teeth  of  the  Mosaic  narrative,  be  adopted, 
you  cannot  explain  the  propagation  of  mankind,  without 
admitting  the  union  of  brothers  and  sisters  in  the  mar- 
riages of  the  immediate  descendants  of  the  first  human 
pair,  or  pairs.  Nor  would  the  same  objections  then  lie 
against  such  unions  as  now:  as  a  little  reflection  will 
serve  to  show.  In  the  second  generation  they  would  be 
no  longer  necessary  :  and  even  with  us,  the  intermarriage 
of  first  cousins,  however  undesirable  it  may  be  esteemed, 
as  a  general  thing,  is  neither  unknown,  nor  regarded  as 
sinful. 

Afler  the  second  generation  among  Adam's  descend- 
ants had  arisen,  the  marriage  of  brother  to  sister  may 
have  been  divinely  prohibited,  although  of  this  we  find 
no  record.  Certain  it  is,  that  in  ancient  times  the  con- 
nection in  marriage  of  very  near  relatives,  even  half- 
brothers  and  sisters,  was  viewed  with  little  of  the  abhor- 
rence we  feel ;  nay,  it  was  positively  tolerated.  Thus 
Sarai,  wife  of  the  patriarch  Abraham,  was  his  half-sister. 


LONGEVITY  OP  THE  ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        281 

(Gen.  XX.  12.)  And  even  in  the  time  of  King  David, 
the  intermarriage  of  those  who  stood  in  a  relation  so  near 
as  that  of  children  of  the  same  father  but  by  different 
mothers,  was  neither  unknown,  nor  deemed  altogether 
unlawful ;  as  is  plain  from  the  remonstrance  urged  by 
the  distressed  Tamaar,  on  her  brutal  brother.  (2  Sam. 
xiii.  13.) 

But  certainly  the  objection  against  the  descent  of  all 
mankind  from  one  pair,  on  this  ground,  comes  with  but 
an  ill  grace  from  those  who  so  highly  extol  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  since  it  is  well  known,  that  among  the  Pha- 
raohs of  old,  as  well  as  among  the  Ptolemies  in  later 
times,  the  marriage  of  brother  and  sister  was  allowed,  and 
was  even  customary.  A  similar  custom  seems  to  have 
prevailed  at  the  court  of  ancient  Persia. 

This  objection  being  disposed  of,  it  is  not  dif&cult  to 
show,  that  without  resort  to  the  supposition  of  any  mi- 
raculous fecundity,  the  descendants  of  the  one  first  human 
pair,  might,  by  the  close  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  years 
from  Adam's  creation,  have  been  sufficiently  numerous 
to  form  several  distinct  settlements,  and  several  towns, 
which  might  have  been  spread  over  an  extensive  district 
of  country  ;  so  as  to  warrant  the  fear  expressed  by  Cain, 
and  to  account  for  his  applying  himself  to  the  building 
of  a  city  or  little  town,  which  he  named  Enoch,  after  his 
son.  A  very  simple  calculation  will  settle  this  point,  and 
show  that  from  this  one  pair,  allowing  the  birth  of  a 
male  only  every  second  year,  nearly  three  thousand  per- 
sons might  have  sprung,  and  been  then  alive  and  vigor- 
ous ;  and  these,  including  a  large  body  of  descendants 
from  Abel,  who  may  well  be  imagined  disposed  to  re- 
sent and  to  avenge  the  murder  of  their  progenitor;  might 


282       POPULOUSNESS   IN  THE   DAYS   OF   CAIN,    AND 


have  been  already  scattered  over  a  large  extent  of  coun- 
try at  the  time  of  Abel's  death,  enough  to  account  for 
the  fears  of  Cain  I  . 

Why,  at  this  very  moment,  when  the  descendants  of 
President  Edwards,  the  author  of  the  immortal  treatise 
on  the  "  Freedom  of  the  Will,'''  are  contemplating  a  general 
family  meeting,  it  is  calculated  that  the  descendants  of 
the  illustrious  metaphysician  number  about  two  thousand, 
although  he  has  been  dead  hardly  a  century,  January, 
1852. 

If,  however,  the  chronological  dates  of  the  Septuagint 
be  adopted,  (and  every  year  serves  only  to  increase  the 
probability  that  this  is  the  true  chronology,)  then,  Seth 
not  having  been  born  until  the  year  230,  a  very  easy 
calculation  will  show,  there  must  have  been  more  than 
a  hundred  thousand  persons  then  alive,  who  may  have 
been  spread  over  a  country  as  extensive  as  Alabama  and 
Louisiana  united.  (See  Bedford's  Scrip.  Chron.  Tables, 
22,  23,  24,  and  25,  and  pages  205-211.     Lond.  1730.)* 

It  is  easy  to  ridicule  such  calculations,  and  to  call 
them  extravagant  and  absurd.  But  ridicule  is  no  test 
of  truth. 

That  no  more  than  three  sons  of  Adam  are  mentioned 
by  name,  in  Genesis,  furnishes  no  proof  that  these  were 
all  the  offspring  of  his  union  with  Eve.  The  probabili- 
ties are  strongly  against  such  comparative  sterility  ;  and 

*  A  calculation  by  no  means  exaggerated  or  very  improbable,  would 
yield  some  eight  or  ten  thousand  at  the  close  of  one  hundred  and  thirty 
years ;  and  by  the  termination  of  the  two  hundred  and  thirty  years  as- 
signed in  the  Septuagint  as  the  date  of  Seth's  birth,  there  might  have 
been  upwards  of  two  hundred  thousand  living  persons.  The  calculation 
given  above,  which  is  the  lowest,  will  meet  the  objection. 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE  ANCIENT  PATRIAEOHS.        283 

the  testimony  of  Genesis  is  explicit  that  Adam  had 
other  children,  and  of  both  sexes. 

These  three  sons  are  alone  mentioned,  because  of  the 
extraordinary  incidents  in  the  history  of  Abel  and  of 
Cain;  and  because,  in  the  line  of  Seth,  the  true  religion 
was  preserved,  and  from  him  Noah,  the  father  of  the 
postdiluvian  world,  was  descended.  The  objection  against 
the  authority  of  Genesis,  and  with  it  the  objection  against 
the  unity  of  the  human  race  as  sprung  from  one  pair, 
that  is  based  on  the  fears,  the  marriage,  and  the  wan- 
derings of  Cain  are  untenable  and  groundless.  For,  let  it 
be  remembered,  that  when  an  objection  against  a  state- 
ment either  found  in  the  Bible  or  made  by  any  competent 
witness,  is  based  upon  the  impossibility  of  the  fact  alleged, 
the  moment  it  is  shown  that'  upon  any  reasonable  sup- 
position it  might  be  true,  the  objection  is  answered,  it 
becomes  powerless,  even  though  the  particular  supposi- 
tion made  should  happen  not  to  be  the  right  one.  The 
reason  is  obvious.  In  showing  that,  on  any  reasonable 
supposition,  the  fact  in  question  might  he  true,  might 
have  occurred,  you  show  that  it  is  not  impossible :  and  of 
course  the  objection  based  upon  the  ground  that  it  is 
impossible^  and  that  therefore  it  cannot  be  true,  dies  at 
once ! 

Another  objection  may  here  be  briefly  noticed,  viz.^  that 
urged  against  the  long  lives  ascribed  in  Genesis  to  the  earlier 
patriarchs.  Thus  we  read  that  Adam  lived  nine  hundred 
and  thirty  years ;  Methuselah  nine  hundred  and  sixty- 
nine.  Noah  seems  to  have  been  about  five  hundred 
years  old  at  the  birth  of  his  sons,  Shem,  Ham,  and 
Japheth,  Gen.  v.  82  ;  and  Noah  was  six  hundred  years 
old  at  the  time  of  the  flood.  Gen.  vii.  11.     His  entire 


284      POPULOUSNESS  IN  THE   DAYS  OF  CAIN,   AND 


age,  at  the  period  of  his  death,  was  nine  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  Gen.  ix.  29.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  be- 
fore the  flood,  men  must  have  lived  about  ten  times  as 
long  as  now.  To  remove  this  difficulty,  various  supposi- 
tions have  been  resorted  to.  Some  have  supposed  that 
the  years  mentioned  in  the  ages  of  the  antediluvian 
patriarchs,  were  lunar,  not  solar  years;  i.  e.  that  they 
were  months.  But  this  explanation  is  inadmissible,  it 
would  reduce  the  period  between  the  creation  of  Adam, 
and  the  deluge,  from  1656  years,  the  lowest  computation 
usually  maintained,  to  about  138 ;  a  period  utterly  insuf- 
ficient to  account  for  all  the  events  recorded,  and  for  the 
large  population  spoken  of,  as  in  existence  on  the  earth 
before  the  deluge.  Other  interpreters  have  supposed 
that  the  numbers  have  been  inadvertently  increased  ten- 
fold, and  that  Adam  was  ninety-three  instead  of  nine 
hundred  and  thirty  years  old ;  Methuselah  ninety-six ; 
and  Noah  ninety-five  years  old,  at  the  time  of  their  death, 
respectively. 

But  if  this  be  the  true  explanation,  the  interval  be- 
tween the  creation  and  the  flood  was  only  165  years, 
which  is  incredible ;  then,  also,  the  deluge  itself  could 
have  lasted  but  a  few  days,  which  is  directly  contradic- 
tory of  the  Mosaic  narrative ;  and  then,  also,  many  of 
the  patriarchs  must  have  had  children  at  ten,  and  some 
of  them  at  five  or  six  years  of  age.  All  this  is  utterly 
inadmissible. 

The  truth  seems  to  be,  that,  for  reasons  doubtless  good 
and  wise,  God  suffered  men  in  the  earlier  ages  of  the 
world,  to  live  and  to  retain  their  vigor,  to  a  very  advanced 
age,  for  the  more  rapid  peopling  of  the  earth,  and  for 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE  ANCIENT  PATRIAKCHS.        285 

the  readier  transmission,  by  tradition,  before  a  written 
revelation  was  given,  of  the  vital  truths  of  religion. 

Before  the  flood,  so  far  as  the  Mosaic  record  enables  us 
to  judge,  the  life  of  man  was  in  length,  double  what  it 
was  in  the  first  centuries  after  the  flood.  In  the  period 
succeeding  the  time  of  Koah,  man's  life  was  reduced  to 
four  hundred  and  six  years,  and  then  it  seems  to  have 
been  rapidly  shortened.  Abraham  died  at  the  age  of  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  years.  Gen.  xxv.  7.  Joseph 
died  at  one  hundred  and  ten,  Gen.  1.  22.  Moses  lived  to 
the  age  of  one  hundred  and  twenty,  Deut.  xxxiv.  7 ;  and 
thus  gradually  was  human  life  shortened,  until,  in  the 
time  of  the  Psalmist,  (Ps.  xc.  10,)  it  was  reduced  to  its 
present  standard,  about  threescore  years  and  ten. 

But,  we  are  told,  the  extreme  longevity  ascribed  in 
Genesis  to  the  patriarchs  is  utterly  incredible,  because  it 
is  unnatural ;  and  moreover  the  recorded  ages  of  persons 
contemporary  with  some  of  these  patriarchs,  as  found  on 
the  monuments  of  Egypt,  show  clearly  that  the  account 
given  in  Genesis  is  exaggerated. 

I  answer.  The  assertion  that  such  longevity  in  an- 
cient times  was  unnatural^  is  gratuitous.  Even  apart 
from  the  direct  appointment  of  God,  to  which  we  unhesi- 
tatingly refer  this  great  longevity,  it  is  far  from  being 
impossible ;  it  is  not  even  improbable,  that,  before  the 
deluge,  and  perhaps  also  for  some  ages  thereafter,  the 
original  vigor  of  man's  frame,  fresh  from  the  hands  of 
his  Maker,  together  with  the  influence  of  a  congenial 
climate,  possibly  of  a  purer  atmosphere,  a  more  equable 
temperature,  a  more  wholesome  diet,  simpler  habits  of 
life,  and  other  causes  to  us  unknown,  may  have  combined 
and  contributed  greatly  to  prolong  the  life  of  man. 


286      POPULOUSNESS  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  CAIN,   AND 

The  Mosaic  account  of  this  longevity  is  certainly  cor- 
roborated by  the  traditional  history  of  all  ancient  nations 
that  has  reached  our  times.  For,  Manetho  who  wrote  the 
story  of  the  Egyptians,  Berosus  who  wrote  the  Chaldoean 
history,  and  those  authors  who  give  us  accounts  of  Phoe- 
nician antiquities;  and  among  the  Greeks,  Hesiod,  He- 
cataeus,  Hellenicus,  Ephorus,  &c.,  do  unanimously  testify 
that,  in  the  first  ages  of  the  world,  men  lived  to  be  near- 
ly one  thousand  years  old.  (See  Burnet's  Theory,  b.  ii. 
ch.  iv. :  see  also  Stackhouse  on  Gen.  v.  13.) 

Besides,  admitting  that  in  Egypt  men  did  not  in  patri- 
archal times  reach  the  advanced  ages  recorded  in  Gene- 
sis, that  could  not  disprove  the  fact,  that  such  longevity 
was  reached  in  other  regions,  (say  in  Asia,  as  recorded 
by  Moses.) 

Is  it  any  proof  that  temples  built  of  sand-stone,  and 
obelisks  of  granite,  and  of  sand-stone  both,  cannot  have 
stood  in  Egypt  uninjured  for  two  or  three  thousand 
years,  because  it  is  found  that,  in  these  United  States  and 
in  Europe,  marble,  and  granite  itself,  gradually  crumble, 
eroded  by  time  after  a  much  shorter  period  ?  Facts  show 
the  reverse ;  for,  it  is  but  a  few  years  since  the  obelisk 
now  standing  in  La  Place  de  la  Concorde,  in  Paris,  was 
brought  from  Egypt,  and  erected  there,  and  already  it 
shows  the  destructive  power  of  the  climate,  the  sharp 
edges  of  its  beautifully  sculptured  figures  are  fast  wear- 
ing away,  while  its  twin-fellow  at  Luxor  still  stands,  after 
the  lapse  of  about  4000  years,  uninjured,  and  fresh  as  at 
first  I  (See  Ampere,  in  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Dec. 
1847,  p.  1010.) 

Moreover,  it  is  a  mere  assumption  that  the  names  on 
these  monuments  are  those  of  persons  contemporaneous 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE   ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        287 

witli  the  long-lived  patriarchs  mentioned  in  Genesis. 
The  men  of  extreme  longevity  were  antediluvians. 

The  monuments  of  Egypt,  though  certainly  very  an- 
cient, were  as  certainly  built  long  after  the  flood ! 

It  is  not  true,  then,  that  the  annals  of  Egypt  and  of  the 
East  show  that,  in  the  patriarchal  times,  men's  lives  were 
not  longer  than  now.  In  all  those  oriental  annals,  some 
of  the  earliest  of  the  men  therein  commemorated,  are 
represented  as  having  attained  a  very  great  age. 

I  recollect  meeting  with  the  names  of  several  mon- 
archs,  mentioned  in  the  hieroglyphics,  whose  age  must 
have  been  considerably  greater  than  that  of  Moses,  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years. 

For  instance,  the  reign  of  Menes,  the  first  king,  and 
first  of  the  Theban  dynasty  in  Egypt,  (mentioned  by 
Eratosthenes,)  was  sixty-two  years.  That  of  Apoppous, 
(the  Pheops  of  Manetho,)  was  one  hundred  years,  wanting 
but  one  hour :  he  was  the  twentieth  king.  The  reign  of 
Moncheiri,  the  sixth  king,  was  seventy-nine  years.  (See 
Brummond's  Origines,  vol.  ii.  pp.  895,  441.)  This  Pheops 
is  now  placed  as  the  fourth  king  of  the  sixth,  or  Mem- 
phite  dynasty:  he  began  to  reign  at  six  years  of  age. 
(See  Henrick's  Egypt,  vol.  ii.  p.  145.) 

So  also  the  Chinese  annals  represent  the  emperor  Fo-hi 
to  have  reigned^  (not  lived  merely,  but  reigned  on  the 
throne  as  monarch,)  during  the  long  period  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  years;  Xinnum,  one  hundred  and  forty; 
Ho-an-ti,  one  hundred ;  and  Hao-hao,  eighty-four  years. 
Yao  reigned  one  hundred  years :  and  these  monarchs 
are,  by  the  Chinese  registers,  assigned  to  a  period  not  far 
from  Noah. 

The  lives  of  these  monarchs  must  therefore,  have  been 


288      POPULOUSNESS  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  CAIN,   AND 


from  one  hundred  and  ten  or  fifteen,  to  one  hundred 
and  seventy  or  even  one  hundred  and  eighty  years. 
(See  Historia  Sinica  Martinii,  and  Bedford's  Scripture 
Chronology,  p.  7 ;  Du  Halde's  China,  vol.  i.  pp.  270,  282  ; 
Chine,  par  M.  Pauthier,  pp.  24-30.) 

Now  it  is  somewhat  remarkable,  that  while  in  our  day 
it  is  objected  against  the  Mosaic  account  of  patriarchal 
longevity,  that  no  instance  of  life  much  longer  than  the 
present  average  is  found  recorded  on  the  monuments  or 
among  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt,  it  is  but  a  few  years 
since  one  argument  advanced  by  the  friends  of  the  Bible 
as  corroborative  of  this  very  account  of  the  long  lives 
of  the  patriarchs,  was  derived  from  the  fact,  that  some 
of  the  earliest  of  the  Egyptian  kings  are  represented  as 
living,  and  even  reigning,  several  centuries  each.  (See 
Faber's  Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  ii.  pp.  49-53.) 

Thus,  in  the  table  of  Egyptian  kings  given  by  Eratos- 
thenes, Menes,  the  first  Egyptian  king,  who  was  long 
supposed  to  be  the  same  as  Mizraim,  lived  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years ;  his  successor,  Thoth,  or  Athmothes,  lived 
two  hundred  and  seventy-six  years.  These  are  repre- 
sented as  nearly  contemporary  with  Arphaxad,  the  son 
of  Shem,  and  with  Salah,  Eber,  and  Peleg.  (Bedford's 
Scrip.  Chron.  p.  62.)  This  Mizraim,  or  Menes,  is  repre- 
sented by  some  to  have  been  the  son  of  Ham,  and  his 
death  at  two  hundred  and  fifty-two  years  of  age  was 
lamented  by  the  Egyptians  as  premature.  "This,"  (ob- 
serves the  quaint  old  chronicler,  Bedford,  p.  61,)  "is  a 
fair  time  (two  hundred  and  fifty-two  years  old)  for  a  man 
whom  the  Egyptians  lament  as  cut  off  in  the  flower  of 
his  age ;  and  this,  and  the  death  of  Athmothes  at  two 
hundred  and  seventy-six  years,  the  grandson  of  Ham,  is 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE   ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        289 

a  good  approach  to  the  longevity  of  those  patriarchal 
times,  since  Athmothes  came  to  the  throne  when  he  was 
two  hundred  and  seventeen  years  old,  and  he  died  when 
he  was  two  hundred  and  seventy-six,  though  not  so  old 
as  Salah,  four  hundred  and  thirty- three;  which  many  ac- 
cidents might  hinder."  "And  thus,"  observes  the  same 
old  writer,  (Bedford,  Chron.  p.  68,)  "  by  comparing  the 
longevity  of  the  kings  of  Upper  Egypt  with  their  con- 
temporaries in  Scripture,  we  find  the  history  of  both  con- 
firmed !"  There  are,  however,  other  difiiculties  attending 
the  received  -understanding  of  the  Mosaic  record  respect- 
ing the  patriarchs.  According  to  the  chronology  com- 
monly given  in  our  Bibles,  Lamech,  the  father  of  Noah, 
was  contemporary  with  all  his  ancestors.  He  was  already 
fifty-six  years  old  when  Adam  died.  Noah  was  eighty- 
four  years  old  at  the  death  of  Enos;  and  at  Noah's  death, 
Abraham  was  fifty-eight  years  old.  Shem,  the  son  of 
Noah,  and  one  of  those  saved  with  Noah  in  the  ark,  not 
only  lived  all  the  days  of  Abraham,  but  he  survived  him 
thirty-three  years.  Shem  must,  then,  have  been  living 
one  hundred  and  nine  years  after  the  institution  of  cir- 
cumcision, as  the  seal  of  God's  covenant  with  Abraham, 
the  father  of  the  faithful.  Arphaxad  lived  eighty-two 
years,  Salah  one  hundred  and  seven,  and  Heber  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-two  years  after  the  establishment  of  that 
rite,  if  Usher's  Chronology  be  admitted,  and  yet  no  mention 
whatever  is  made  of  these  the  pious  ancestors  and  kin- 
dred of  Abraham,  all  yet  living  when  that  covenant  was 
made.  Were  these  venerable  patriarchs  actually  living 
at  the  time  when  this  solemn  religious  ordinance  was  es- 
tablished, the  utter  silence  of  the  sacred  historian  respect- 
ing them  is  unaccountable. 

13 


290      POPULOUSNESS  IN  THE  DAYS  OF  CAIN,    AND 

Again :  when  God  intimated  to  Sarah  that  she  should 
bear  a  son,  she  deemed  it  incredible,  that  she,  at  the  age 
of  ninety,  should  conceive,  her  husband  also  being  about 
one  hundred :  /i€,  as  good  as  dead,  says  Paul. 

But,  if  the  common  chronology  be  retained,  we  must 
suppose  that  fertility  even  in  persons  much  older,  could 
have  been  nothing  strange  to  this  venerable  couple ;  for 
Shem,  their  own  ancestor,  was  yet  living,  whose  first 
child  was  born  after  the  flood,  when  Shem  was  upwards 
of  one  hundred  years  old :  and  Abraham  at  least,  and 
most  probably  Sarah  also,  must  have  seen,  and  might 
often  have  conversed  with  Noah  himself,  who  lived  till 
Abraham  was  fifty-eight,  and  Sarah  about  forty-eight. 
But  Noah  was  about  five  hundred  years  old,  when  his  chil- 
dren were  born.  Another  computation  places  the  birth 
of  Abraham  a  few  years  after  the  death  of  Noah :  but  the 
argument  is  scarcely  affected  at  all,  by  this  difference  of 
computation.  The  incredulity  of  Abraham  and  Sarah  is 
utterly  inexplicable,  if  they  had  been  so  long  contempo- 
rary, or  so  nearly  contemporary,  with  Noah  and  Shem, 
as  the  chronology  of  Usher  implies. 

This  is,  most  assuredly,  a  difficulty  of  some  magnitude ; 
and  against  the  received  computation  of  dates,  it  bears 
with  overwhelming  force.  That  computation  allows  an 
interval  of  three  hundred  and  fifty -two  years  only,  be- 
tween the  deluge  and  Abraham. 

Against  the  shortness  of  this  interval,  many,  and  con- 
stantly increasing  difficulties  present.  But  in  the  Samari- 
tan Pentateuch,  the  dates  assigned  for  this  period,  and 
those  also  in  the  Septuagint,  or  Greek  translation,  which 
here  agrees  with  the  Samaritan,  relieve  us  entirely  of  this 
difficulty.     According  to  the  LXX.  there  had  elapsed, 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE  ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        291 

instead  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-two  years,  no  less  than 
one  thousand  and  two  years,  (and  even  the  Samaritan  copy 
gives  us  nine  hundred  and  forty-two  years,)  between  the 
flood  and  the  birth  of  Abraham,  (see  Hale's  Chronology, 
vol.  ii.  p.  33,)  an  interval  which  affords  ample  time  for 
all  the  events  recorded  in  Genesis,  and  for  those  also,  that 
are  registered  in  the  archives  of  ancient  oriental  nations, 
saving,  perhaps,  those  of  Egypt  alone.  Ample  time  is 
also,  by  adopting  the  Septuagint  chronology,  afforded  for 
the  gradual  decrease  in  the  length  of  human  life,  and  the 
consequent  limitation  of  the  period  of  fruitfulness  in 
marriage ;  until,  by  the  time  of  Abraham,  the  promised 
birth  of  a  son,  at  the  age  then  attained  by  the  father  of 
the  faithful,  and  his  wife,  was  very  naturally  heard  with 
surprise  and  incredulity. 

True,  we  are  told,  that  the  researches  of  the  latest  ex- 
plorers among  the  monuments  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile, 
have  brought  to  light  records,  which  extend  from  A.D. 
250,  the  most  modern,  back  to  2,500  years  hefore  Abra- 
ham. This'  would  imply  that  these  monuments  are 
1,498  years  older  than  the  flood,  even  according  to  the 
Septuagint  chronology.  According  to  the  chronology  of 
Usher,  as  commonly  printed  in  our  Bibles,  these  dis- 
coveries would  show  the  oldest  of  the  Egyptian  monu- 
mental records  now  known  to  be  2.148  years  before  the 
flood,  and  no  less  than.  492  years,  before  Adam  was 
created.  (See  Ampere  in  Eev.  des  Deux  Mondes,  Dec. 
1847,  pp.  1019,  1035.)  But  these  dates  are  certainly 
exaggerated,  as  I  hope  hereafter  to  show.  (See  Eevue 
&c.,  Nov.  1846,  p.  688.) 

But  suppose  it  should  be  shown  bevond  dispute,^  that 

*  For  instances  of  varying  interpretations  of  the  monumental  hiero- 


292       POPULOUSNESS   IN  THE  DAYS  OF   CAIN",   AND 

these  dates  do  actually  stand  recorded  on  the  monuments ; 
that  would  not,  of  itself,  authenticate  them  as  correct. 

The  vanity  of  nearly  all  oriental  nations  has  led  to  pal- 
pable exaggerations  of  antiquity  in  their  earlier  annals ; 
and  none  more  so,  than  the  Egyptians. 

A  nation  that  gravely  records  the  reigns  of  their  earlier 
kings  as  lasting  hundreds,  and  in  some  instances,  thou- 
sands of  years,  as  the  Egyptians  do,  may  well  be  sup- 
posed to  have  made  fabulous  records  among  their  hiero- 
glyphics. In  some  instances  it  has  been  proved,  that  the 
hieroglyphics  have  been  altered.  (See  Eev.  des  Deux 
Mondes,  April,  1848,  p.  77,  also  p.  66.)  New  names  and 
dates  have  been  written  over  older  ones,  that  were  erased 
to  make  room  for  them.  This  I  can  show.  Such  altera- 
tions have  been  observed,  and  pointed  out  by  Amp6re. 
He  has  shown  also  that  at  Beit-Oalli,  Champollion  has 
made  out  one  Kamses,  more  than  the  monuments  record. 
(See  Rev.  des  Deux  Mondes,  Jan.  1849,  p.  87,  and  p.  93.) 
This  substitution  of  Cartouches  has  been  observed  also 
at  Medinet  Habou.  (Rev.  &c.,  Dec.  1847,  p.*1028.)  At 
Thebes  and  at  Amada  also,  (see  id.  Jan.  1849,  p.  93.) 

But,  should  we  even  allow  all  that  can  be  claimed  for 
the  antiquity  of  these  monuments ;  after  all,  these  monu- 
ments present  only  the  unsupported  assertions  of  one  peo- 
ple, against  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  supported  as  the 
Bible  is,  by  an  array  of  evidence,  great,  various,  and  aug- 
menting and  strengthening  every  year.  Nay,  suppose 
the  worst;  suppose  that  we  should   be  compelled  to 

glyphics,  among  even  the  ablest  Egyptologists,  Champollion,  Rosellini, 
&c.,  (see  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Jan.  1849,  p.  87,  note.  See  also,  id. 
Nov.  1848,  pp.  687, 688.  Wilkinson  and  Osburn  both  notice  similar  varia- 
tions in  interpreting  the  hieroglyphics. 


LONGEVITY  OF  THE   ANCIENT  PATRIARCHS.        293 

abandon  the  Septuagint  chronology,  as  well  as  that  of 
Usher,  even  this  (of  which  there  is  no  probability  at  all,) 
would  be  merely  equivalent  to  admitting  that  the  mode 
of  numerical  notation  used  in  the  earliest  copies  of  the 
Pentateuch,  and  of  its  ancient  versions  has  not  been  made 
out  with  entire  certainty,  and  that,  therefore,  mere  chrono- 
logical dates  were  not  designed  to  be  included^  as  an 
essential  part,  in  revelation. 

Even  this  concession  would  leave  every  doctrine,  every 
precept,  every  promise  of  the  Bible,  distinct,  full,  and 
glorious  as  before.  But  this  concession  we  do  not  make  : 
on  the  contrary  we  contend  that  the  very  oldest  of  the 
Egyptian  monuments,  when  rightly  interpreted,  falls  en- 
tirely within  the  Mosaic  chronology,  according  to  the  an- 
cient Greek  version.  By  the  help  of  the  recent  researches 
of  Mr.  E.  S.  Poole,  we  can  now  place  this  position  in  a 
light  of  strong  probability,  if  not  certainty. 

This  point  will  be  briefly  set  forth  at  the  close  of  the 
Second  Lecture  on  the  Deluge. 


^>  OF  THR     ^^ 

[TJH 17  BR  SIT  71 


*i; 


LECTURE   VIII. 

ANTEDILUVIAN    GIANTS. 
Gen.  vi.  4.—"  There  were  giants  in  the  earth,  in  those  days." 

On  the  first  four  verses  of  this  chapter,  a  living  writer 
has  hazarded  the  remark :  "  Is  it  possible  that  any  one 
can  regard  this  as  a  part  of  genuine  revelation  ?  Does  it 
not,  on  the  contrary,  (as  many  modem  commentators 
think,)  bear  on  its  face  strong  evidence  of  having  been 
borrowed  from  the  ancient  mythologies  of  India  and 
Egypt,  which  it  so  closely  resembles?  Are  not  ^Uhe 
sons  of  Ood"  a  mythical  creation  of  the  human  brain? 
The  whole  conception  is  utterly  opposed  to  the  monothe- 
ism of  the  other  Hebrew  books  :  and  the  New  Testament 
tells  us,  in  plain  terms,  that  Christ  was  the  mily  son  of 
Godr  (See  Two  Lectures  by  Dr.  J.  C.  Nott,  New  York, 
1849,  p.  61.) 

This  criticism  betrays  but  little  acquaintance  with  the 
peculiar  phraseology  of  the  sacred  books,  and  with  the 
writings  of  the  most  learned  and  judicious  expositors  of 
those  books.  As  to  borrowing  from  oriental  mythology, 
it  may  be  remarked  that  the  ancient  Indian  mythology 
cannot  be  traced  with  certainty  beyond  an  era  very  long 
posterior  to  that  of  Moses.     If  there  be  borrowing  in  the 


ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS.  295 

case,  the  Gentoos  must  have  borrowed  from  the  Hebrews. 
As  it  respects  Egyptian  mythology,  it  was,  toto  coelo,  dif- 
ferent from  the  teachings  of  the  Mosaic  legends,  as  I  have 
elsewhere  shown.  (See  my  Lecture  on  the  Character  of 
Moses  as  a  Statesman,  in  this  work.  See  also  Pritchaj-d's 
Egyp.  Mythol.  pp.  406,  408.) 

The  New  Testament  does,  indeed,  tell  us  that  Christ 
is,  in  2i peculiar  sense,  the  Son  of  God;  that  Christ  is  the 
only  begotten  Son  of  God!  (John  i.  14,  18;  iii.  16,  18.) 
But  it  tells  us  also  that  all  believers  in  Christ,  all  truly 
devoted  persons,  are  also  children  of  God^  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  God.  (John  i.  12.  Kom.  viii.  14.  Philip,  ii.  15. 
Hos.  i.  10 :  comp.  Job  i.  6.  Luke  iii.  88.)  What  is 
there,  then,  to  forbid  the  idea,  that  the  term  sons  of  God^ 
was,  from  the  remotest  ages  of  even  the  antediluvian 
world,  applied  to  the  pious,  and  to  those  who  avowed 
themselves  worshippers  of  the  one  only  living  God  ? 

Thus  understood.,  (and  this  is  a  natural,  and,  as  I  be- 
lieve, the  generally  received  interpretation  of  these  pas- 
sages,) the  story  related  in  Gen.  vi.  1-4,  is  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  the  monotheism  pervading  Genesis  entirely, 
no  less  than  the  other  books  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 

True,  during  the  first  three  or  four  centuries  of  our 
era,  there  was  extensively  prevalent  among  Christian 
writers,  an  idea  that,  by  sons  of  God^  mentioned  in  Gen. 
vi.  2,  4,  '"'who  saw  the  daughters  of  men  that  they  were  fair  ^^ 
&c.,  spirits  were  meant,  i.  e.  angels  clothed  in  bodies 
assumed  for  the  purpose ;  that  these  incarnate  spirits 
wooed  and  won  the  fairest  among  the  women  of  that 
time;  and  that,  from  this  strange  union,  sprang  a  race 
of  men,  gigantic  in  stature,  and  lawless  in  their  lives. 
And  St.  Austin  was  very  confident  in  this  matter,  dis- 


296  ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS. 

tinctly  asserting  that  instances  were  well  known,  and 
even  not  unfrequent,  of  demons  (i.  e.  spirits  in  human 
shape,  and  called  incubi,)  having  carnal  connection  with 
women ;  so  that,  he  says,  it  were  foolish  to  doubt  the  fact. 

But  these  monstrous  stories  undoubtedly  originated  in 
a  false  interpretation  on  this  passage,  by  some  Jewish 
writers,  and  not  improbably  they  may  have  originated  in 
the  form  of  the  phrase  used  for  "  sons  of  Ood^^^  as  found 
in  some  ancient  copies  of  the  Septuagint  translation  of 
Genesis!  Philo  did  certainly  translate  '''•sons  of  God" 
angels  of  Ood. 

Josephus  also  asserts  (Antiq.  b.  i.  ch.  iv.)  that  the  angels 
of  Ood,  mixing  with  women^  begat  an  insolent  race^  (not 
much  unlike  that  of  the  heaven-storming  giants,  cele- 
brated in  Greek  mythological  fables,)  overbearing  right  with 
power/ 

We  cannot  wonder,  then,  that  nearly  all  the  early 
Christian  writers,  called  the  Fathers,  very  few  of  whom 
knew  anything  of  Hebrew,  and  who  almost  invariably 
used,  and  drew  all  their  ideas  of  Bible  truth  from,  the 
Greek  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  called  the  Sep- 
tuagint, should  (as  Dr.  Whitby  has  clearly  shown  in  his 
"  Writings  of  the  Fathers,"  that  most  of  them  did,  as  e.  g. 
Justin  Martyr,  Irenaeus,  Athenagorus,  Clemens  Alexan- 
drinus,  Tertullian,  Cyprian,  Lactantius,  and  even  Euse- 
bius,  &c.)  have  held  this  strange  opinion,  of  the  meaning 
of  Gen.  vi.  2,  4.  It  is,  perhaps,  hardly  necessary  to  re- 
mark, that  our  copies  of  the  Septuagint  read  this  passage 
(fiiot t5  ^55)  as  our  English  version  does,  "sons  of  God!" 
In  the  closing  words  of  ver.  26  of  Gen.  iv.,  we  read  that 
in  the  days  of  Enos,  the  son  of  Seth,  "  then  began  men  to 
call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord!" 


ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS.  297 

Bj  that  expression  is  undoubtedly  meant,  some  marked 
change  in  the  religious  sentiments,  or  the  religious  rites 
of  men,  perhaps  both;  and  not  improbably  this  change 
prevailed  chiefly  in  the  family  of  Seth.  Kosenmiiller 
thinks  it  denotes  the  reordering  of  the  rites  of  God's  wor- 
ship. 

Monsieur  Cahen,  a  learned  French  Jew,  of  Paris,  in  his 
recent  French  translation  of  the  Bible,  commenced  in 
1831,  says,  in  a  note  on  Gen.  iv.  26 :  "  This  might  well 
be  the  origin  of  prayer  addressed  to  the  Eternal,  as  de- 
signated by  his  quadriliteral  name  mjVt^  Jehovah,  here 
translated  Lord.  This  may  be  so.  But,  as  the  word 
translated  called  upon,  may  mean  ^^  called  upon  themselves ^^'' 
i  e.  called  themselves  by  the  name  of  the  Lord,  it  is  the 
generally  received  opinion,  that,  in  the  time  of  Enos,  the 
descendants  of  Seth,  seeing  the  great  and  increasing  wick- 
edness prevailing  among  those  of  the  race  of  Cain,  did,  in 
order  to  separate  themselves  more  fully  from  the  impious, 
assume  a  designation  expressive  of  their  reverence  for  the 
true  God,  and  so  called  themselves,  after  his  name,  the 
people  of  Jehovah  / 

These  are  they  who,  in  Gen.  vi.  2,  4,  are  spoken  of  as 
sons  of  God  / 

It  is,  however  true,  that  the  word  translated  began,  in 
Gen.  iv.  26,  does,  in  some  of  its  forms,  mean  to  pollute  or 
profane.  Hence  many  of  the  old  Jewish  rabbins  be- 
lieved and  taught,  that  here,  in  the  family  of  Seth,  and 
so  early  as  in  the  time  of  Enos,  was  the  origin  of  idolatry, 
especially  the  worship  of  the  sun,  and  other  heavenly 
bodies. 

This  hypothesis  is  rendered  quite  plausible,  from  this 
consideration,  that,  although  in  the  line  of  Seth,  piety, 

]3* 


298  ANTEDILUVIAN   GIANTS. 

and  the  knowledge  and  the  worship  of  the  true  God  were 
preserved,  yet,  the  great  body,  even  of  the  descendants 
of  Seth,  although  possibly  designated  sons  of  God,  just 
as  the  whole  of  Europe,  (Turkey  excepted,)  is  now 
called  Christian,  did  in  fact  become  very  corrupt,  and 
grossly  wicked.  As  such,  Seth's  descendants,  (Noah  and 
his  family  alone  excepted,)  perished  in  one  indiscriminate 
ruin  with  the  descendants  of  Cain,  in  the  flood. 

That  Cain  and  his  descendants  became  wicked,  im- 
pious idolaters,  and  deniers  of  the  one  living  God,  is  an 
inference  from  the  marked  distinction  made  in  Genesis, 
between  ^^  s(ms  of  God^'  and  daughters  of  men.  This  idea 
is  further  confirmed  by  the  passage  in  the  letter  of  the 
Apostle  Jude,  (v.  4-11,)  where,  speaking  of  some  who 
^^  denied  the  Lord  that  bought  them,^^  he  adds,  "  Woe  unto 
them,  for  they  are  gone  after  the  way  of  Cain,^'  i,  e.  they  had 
thrown  off  all  respect  for  God. 

There  is  a  very  curious  passage  in  the  work  of  the  Jew- 
ish writer  Maimonides  on  idolatry,  in  which  he  explains 
this  passage  in  Gen.  iv.  26,  as  recording  the  origin  of 
idolatry.  Dr.  A.  Clarke,  in  his  commentary  on  Gen.  iv. 
26,  thus  quotes  the  passage  from  Maimonides  at  length : 
"  In  the  days  of  Enos,  the  sons  of  Adam  erred  with  a 
very  great  error,  and  the  counsels  of  the  wise  men  of 
that  age,  became  brutish ;  and  Enos  himself  was  one  of 
those  that  erred :  and  their  error  was  this.  They  said,  for- 
asmuch as  God  has  created  these  stars  and  spheres  to 
govern  the  world,  and  set  them  on  high,  and  imparted 
honor  unto  them,  and  they  are  ministers  that  minister 
before  him,  it  is  meet  that  men  should  laud  and  glorify 
them,  and  give  them  honor.  For  this  is  the  will  of  God, 
that  we  magnify  and  honor  whatsoever  He  magnifieth 


ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS.  299 

and  honoretli ;  even  as  a  king  would  have  those  honored 
who  stand  before  him  ;  and  this  is  the  honor  of  the  king 
himself. 

"  When  this  thing  was  come  up  into  their  hearts,  they 
began  to  build  temples  unto  the  stars,  and  to  offer  sacri- 
fice unto  them,  to  laud  and  glorify  these  with  words,  and 
to  worship  before  them,  that  they  might,  in  their  evil 
opinion,  obtain  favor  of  the  Creator.  And  this  was  the 
root  of  idolatry^  &c.  And,  in  process  of  time,  there  stood 
up  false  prophets  among  the  sons  of  Adam,  who  said  that 
God  had  commanded  and  said  unto  them,  worship  such  a 
star,  or  all  the  stars,  and  do  sacrifice  unto  them,  thus  and 
thus,  and  build  a  temple  for  it,  and  make  an  image  of 
it,  that  all  the  people,  women  and  children  may  worship 
it.  And  the  false  prophets  showed  them  the  image  he 
had  feigned  out  of  his  own  heart,  and  said  it  was  the 
image  of  such  a  star,  which  was  made  known  to  him  by 
prophecy.  And  they  began,  after  this  manner,  to  make 
images  in  temples,  and  under  trees,  and  on  tops  of  moun- 
tains and  hills,  and  assembled  themselves  together,  and 
worshipped  them,  &c.  And  this  thing  was  spread  over 
all  the  earth,  to  serve  images  with  services  different  one 
from  another,  &c.  &c.  And  the  wise  men  that  were 
among  them,  as  the  priests,  and  such  like,  thought  there 
was  no  God  save  the  stars  and  spheres,  for  whose  sake, 
and  in  whose  likeness,  they  had  made  these  images ;  and 
as  for  the  Eock  everlasting,  there  was  no  man  that  ac- 
knowledged Him,  or  knew  Him,  save  a  few  persons 
in  the  world,  such  as  Enoch,  Methuselah,  Noah,  &c." 
(See  Maimonides  in  the  Mishna ;  and  also  Ainsworth 
on  the  passage.     See,  also.  Dr.  A.  Clarke  on  Gen.  iv.  26.) 

This  curious  and  very  ancient  history  of  the  rise  and 


300  ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS. 

gradual  spread  of  idolatry,*  is  quite  probable.  Certain 
it  is  that  the  sixth  chapter  of  Genesis  presents  us  with  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  spread,  if  not  also  of  the  origin  of 
that  wickedness  which  eventually  caused  the  destruction 
of  the  ancient  world  by  a  vast  deluge  ;  and  as  chief  and 
prime  amoog  the  agencies  working  to  that  issue,  we  find 
mentioned  the  intermingling  of  the  worshippers  of  the 
true  God,  with  the  impious  descendants  of  Cain.  "  The 
sons  of  Ood  saw  iJie  daughters  of  men  that  they  were  fair  ; 
and  they  took  them  wives  of  aU  that  they  chose^  This  in- 
congruous alliance  seems  to  have  been  fraught  with  evils 
on  all  sides.  (See  Havernick's  Introd.  to  Pentateuch, 
pp.  110-112.) 

We  know,  indeed,  that  even  now,  under  the  gospel, 
the  connection  in  marriage  of  the  devout  Christian  with 
the  decidedly  worldly,  is  discountenanced  at  least,  if  not 
forbidden.  ^'  Be  ye  not  unequally  yoked  luith  unbelievers  ;'* 
and  those  who  would  marry,  are  assured  that  it  is  right 
so  to  do  "  only  in  the  Lord^  (1  Cor.  vii.  89.)  Nor  can 
it  be  doubted  that  such  marriages  of  the  believer  with 
the  unbeliever,  are  often  the  occasion  of  much  anxiety 
and  sorrow,  especially  in  regard  to  the  training  of  chil- 
dren. But  in  those  antediluvian  marriages  of  the  pious 
with  the  impious,  of  the  sons  of  God  with  the  daughters 
of  men,  there  must  have  been  a  something  more  than  to 
us  is  now  apparent — a  something  peculiarly  offensive  to 
Heaven,  and  peculiarly  fertile  of  evil.  For  the  intima- 
tion immediately  follows  of  a  certain  brief  interval  du- 
ring which  God  would  yet  bear  with  the  increasing  wick- 

*  See,  also,  Faber's  Origin  of  Idolatry,  vol.  ii.  pp.  34-36,  and  Sir  Wra. 
Dramraond's  Origines,  vol.  iii.  pp.  424,  425.  Jackson's  Chronology, 
pp.  60-63. 


ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS.  301 

edness  of  men,  ere  lie  would  sweep  them  all  from  tlie 
face  of  the  earth.  (Gen.  vi.  8.)  Then  follow  the  remark- 
able words,  There  were  giants  in  the  earth  in  those  days. 

By  many,  perhaps  by  a  majority  of  the  readers  of  our 
good  old  English  version,  it  has  been  supposed  that 
these  giants  were  persons  of  very  large  stature  and  huge 
dimensions ;  an  entire  race  of  such  monsters ;  and  that 
they  were  the  fruit  of  the  marriage  of  the  pious  race 
with  the  wicked — of  the  sons  of  God  with  the  daughters 
men.  But  this  can  hardly  be ;  for  these  giants  (what- 
ever that  term  may  import)  are  here  stated  to  have  been 
existing  before  the  fruit  of  these  unlawful  marriages  was 
borne.  Thus  we  read,  ''  There  were  giants  in  the  earth  in 
those  days.  And  AFTER  THAT,  when  the  sons  of  Ood  went 
in  unto  the  daughters  ofmen^  and  they  hare  children  unto  them^ 
the  same  became  mighty  men^  which  were  of  old,  men  of  re- 
nown J' 

This  whole  passage  seems  to  me  to  convey  the  idea 
simply  that  now,  the  attention  of  men  was  directed  ex- 
clusively to  the  affairs  of  this  life,  and  that  physical  beauty 
and  physical  perfection  became  the  great  objects  of  de- 
sire. The  result  was,  a  race  excelling  in  physical  pro- 
portions, and  physical  power ;  an  athletic,  healthy,  ac- 
tive race,  full  of  energy,  full  of  enterprise,  and  signally 
successful  in  their  worldly  pursuits.  The  whole  end  and 
aim  of  this  pre-eminently  vigorous  race,  seem  to  have 
been  pleasure  and  distinction.  This  they  secured ;  for, 
as,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  it  could  have  been  only 
a  few,  comparatively,  of  the  one  race  that  would  inter- 
marry with  the  other,  and  produce  the  more  vigorous 
race,  the  physical  perfection,  the  boldness  of  the  achieve- 
ments of  this  mixed  race,  these  mighty  ones,  might  and 


302  ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS. 

would  attract  attention,  awaken  admiration,  and  render 
them  men  of  renown^  which  were  of.  old  I 

The  natural  tendency  of  all  this  would  be,  to  increase 
the  prevailing  forgetfulness  of  God,  to  encourage  luxury 
and  idolatry,  and  to  foster  the  general  wickedness,  which 
began  loudly  to  call  upon  heaven  for  some  purifying 
power,  to  rid  the  earth  of  the  monstrous  wickedness 
under  which  it  was  groaning. 

Thus  it  appears  that  in  these  lustful  marriages  was 
laid  the  foundation  of  that  abounding  evil  which  eventu- 
ally brought  the  deluge  upon  the  earth. 

It  may  be,  however,  that  by  the  phrase  "  sons  of  God^^' 
like  other  somewhat  similar  expressions,  such  as  "  cedars 
of  God,''^  "  mountains  of  the  Lord,^^  denoting  very  high 
trees  or  lofty  mountains,  &c.  (See  1  Sam.  xxvi.  12  ;  Ps. 
Ixviii.  16  ;  xxxvi.  7  ;  Ixxx.  10, 11 ;  civ.  16  ;  Cant.  viii.  6 : 
and  compare  Nordheimer's  Hebrew  Grammar,  vol.  i.  pp. 
60,  61.)  Moses  intends  to  convey  the  idea  of  persons 
tall,  large,  and  majestic  in  appearance.  If  this  interpre- 
tation be  admitted,  we  shall  have  here  no  account  of  the 
origin  of  these  tall  individuals  ;  it  would  only  seem,  by 
inference,  that  such  appeared  among  the  descendants  of 
Seth,  the  pious  race. 

Captivated  by  the  beauty  of  the  daughters  of  men, 
i.  e.  the  thoroughly  worldly,  the  descendants  of  Cain, 
they  contracted  marriages  with  them  ;  the  result  of  which 
was,  a  race,  vigorous,  daring,  and  distinguished  alike  for 
their  achievements  and  their  increasing  wickedness. 

Certain  it  is  that  this  passage  of  holy  writ  has,  in  all 
ages,  been  understood  to  convey  the  idea,  that  there 
existed  in  antediluvian  times,  a  considerable  number  of 
persons,  if  not  an  entire  race  or  tribe  of  men,  gigantic  in 


ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS.  308 

size,  and  distinguished  for  their  prowess.  But  it  by  no 
means  authorizes  the  notion,  that  the  antediluvians  were 
generally  persons  of  gigantic  stature.  Nor  is  there  any 
reason  to  believe  that,  even  from  the  earliest  ages,  the 
general  average  of  man's  size  has  undergone  any  con- 
siderable alteration.  It  is  indeed  true  that  many  ancient 
authors  speak  of  such  giants  in  primitive  times,  e.  g.  Hue- 
tius,  Inquiries,  b.  ii. ;  Augustine  de  Civ.  Dei.  vi.  15  ;  Jo- 
sephus  Antiq.  b.  i.  c.  v. ;  Pliny,  vi.  1.  (See  Heidegger, 
Hist.  Patriarchs,  Essay  ii. ;  Whiston's  Orig.  Eecords  and 
Suppl. ;  and  also  Harkwell's  Apology,  vi.  3,  &c.  See 
Faber's  Origin  of  Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  i.  p.  217.  See 
Jackson's  Chronology,  pp.  59,  60.) 

It  is  also  true  that,  at  various  epochs,  bones  of  im- 
mense size  have  been  dug  up,  which,  at  the  time,  and 
for  many  ages  thereafter,  were  supposed  to  be  human 
bones,  of  vast  size,  the  remains  of  ancient,  and  possibly  of 
antediluvian  giants.  Thus  it  is  stated  by  Tazelius,  and 
the  statement  is  repeated  by  Claverinus,  that  near  Panor- 
mum,  in  Sicily,  the  body  of  a  giant  eighteen  cubits,  or 
twenty-seven  feet,  in  height,  was  dug  up  A.D.  1547. 

Another  near  Mazerene,  in  the  same  island,  was  found 
A.D.  1516,  twenty  cubits,  or  thirty  feet  tall.  Again,  in 
1548,  near  Syracuse,  was  disinterred  a  skeleton  of  simi- 
lar size.  Near  Entella,  in  Sicily,  was  dug  up  a  body 
twenty-two  cubits,  or  thirty-three  feet  high,  the  skull  of 
which  was  about  ten  feet  in  circumference.  Another 
body  of  enormous  magnitude,  is  spoken  of,  as  having 
been  found  standing  in  a  large  cave  near  Drepanum,  in 
Sicily,  so  early  as  A.D.  1342.  The  staff  of  this  monster 
was,  they  tell  us,  like  the  mast  of  a  ship,  and  the  anterior 
part  of  his  skull  would  contain  several  Sicilian  bushels, 


804  ANTEDILUVIAN   GIANTS. 

each  of  whicli  is  about  one  third  of  the  English  bushel. 
(See  Whiston's  Authentic  Records  and  Supplement.) 

Plato  and  Pliny  both,  mention  enormous  bones  found 
in  a  mountain  of  Crete,  which,  if  human,  must  have  ap- 
pertained to  a  man  standing  forty-six  cubits,  or  nearly 
sixty-nine  feet  tall.  Another  found  in  Mauritania,  and 
mentioned  by  Strabo  and  Plutarch,  was  supposed  to  be 
the  skeleton  of  Antaeus.  If  really  his,  then  Antaeus 
must  have  stood  sixty  cubits,  that  is  nearly  ninety  feet 
high.  A  man  of  imposing  presence  certainly,  must  this 
Antaeus  have  been ;  and  when  he  stooped  to  kiss  his 
mother  earth,  it  must  have  been  an  act  of  signal  conde- 
scension.* 

Some  old  authors  tell  us  of  another  skeleton,  found 
A.D.  1171,  in  England,  that  appertained  to  a  person  fifty 
feet  long. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  all  such  supposed 
gigantic  human  bones,  when  subjected  to  the  test  of 
scientific  scrutiny,  prove  to  be  not  human  bones  at  all, 
but  the  bones,  sometimes  of  whales,  sometimes  of  the  ele- 
phant, and  sometimes  of  extinct  monsters,  such  as  the 
mastodon,  or  the  isaurion.  Sir  Hans  Sloane  examined 
an  immense  vertebra,  or  joint  of  a  backbone,  dug  up  in 
Oxfordshire,  England,  which  was  fully  believed  by  the 
vulgar  to  be  the  bone  of  a  huge  antediluvian  giant.  He 
found  it  to  be,  in  truth,  one  of  the  vertebra?  of  a  large 
whale  I     St.  Austin,  in  adducing  proof  of  the  existence 

*  Quaere !  May  it  not  be  that  the  discovery,  in  very  early  times,  of 
such  vast  bones,  in  Sicily,  and  some  other  places  near  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  known  to  the  ancients,  had  something  to  do  in  origi- 
nating the  traditionary  fables  of  the  giants  of  classical  antiquity,  especially 
the  Cyclops  and  the  Titans  1 


ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS.  805 

of  "  giants  in  those  days^  on  the  earthy  before  theflood^^''  men- 
tions an  immense  tooth  that  he  himself  had  seen  near 
Utica.  It  was  doubtless  the  tooth  of  some  elephant.  In 
1650  a  large  tooth,  disinterred  near  Tunis,  in  Africa, 
was  sent  for  examination  to  the  learned  Pierese.  He 
identified  it  as  in  all  respects  similar  to  another  tooth 
found  in  the  same  region ;  and  both  were  unquestionably 
the  grinders  of  an  elephant,  or  of  elephants.  (See 
Eichardson's  Geology.     Cosmos,  vol.  i.  p.  275.) 

Some  strange  mistakes  have,  it  is  said,  been  made  in 
the  reputed  relics  of  saints,  exhibited  in  some  popish 
churches.  A  few  years  ago,  a  large  scapula,  part  of  an 
elephant  in  reality,  was  exhibited  in  a  church  at  Venice, 
as  the  shoulder-blade  of  St.  Christopher ! 

At  Antwerp,  also,  a  large  tooth  was  shown  as  a  saintly 
relic,  which  had,  at  one  time  undoubtedly,  aided  in  duly 
masticating  the  food  of  a  good-sized  elephant.  (See 
Eees'  Cycloped.  art.  Giant.  See  also  Dr.  Beard's  Bib. 
Diet,  for  People,  art.  Anak.) 

It  can  hardly  be  denied,  however,  that  human  skele- 
tons and  human  bones,  and  fragments  of  such  bones,  of 
uncommon  magnitude,  have  occasionally  been  found.  A 
paper  mentioning  several  such  instances  was  read,  some 
years  since,  by  Mon.  Le  Cat,  before  the  ''  Academie  des 
/Sciencesj^^  at  Eouen.  (Idem.)  It  is  also  unquestionable 
that  occasionally  there  have  been  seen,  in  various  coun- 
tries and  in  all  ages,  living  individuals  of  unusual,  and 
sometimes  even  of  enormous  stature. 

In  our  own  day  such  monsters  have  been  seen ;  and 
exceptions,  equally  striking,  occasionally  present,  of  per- 
sons of  very  diminutive  size  ;  as,  e.  g.  the  dwarf  known 
as  Tom  Thumb,  who  is  yet  living,  and  has  been  exhibited 


306  ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS. 

in  nearly  every  state  in  the  Union,  and  in  several  coun- 
tries of  Europe,  also. 

The  skeleton  of  O'Brien,  is  still  in  the  British  Museum, 
measuring  seven  feet  eleven  inches  in  height.  The  man, 
while  living,  must,  therefore,  have  been  about  eight  feet 
and  one  inch,  in  height.  Parsons,  originally  a  black- 
smith, and  afterwards  employed  as  a  porter  at  the  Court 
establishment  of  the  English  monarch,  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  seven  feet  and  two 
inches  high,  and  proportionably  built,  in  all  respects. 

Instances  of  similar  excess  beyond  the  average  propor- 
tions of  man,  are  not  unknown.  Perhaps  there  are  few 
who  have  not  occasionally  met  with  such. 

A  few  years  since,  when  travelling  on  the  Mississippi, 
I  saw  a  young  man  who  came  on  board  at  Grand  Gulf, 
apparently  not  above  eighteen  years  of  age.  Judging  by 
the  degree  in  which  he  was  compelled  to  stoop,  as  he 
moved  about  in  the  cabin  of  the  steamer,  he  must  have 
been  considerably  above  seven  feet  in  height.  At  that 
time  he  was  a  well-proportioned,  though  rather  slender, 
youth.  If  still  living,  and  in  health,  he  is  no  doubt 
greatly  increased  in  bulk,  and  might  be  appropriately 
designated  a  giant. 

Some  few  years  since,  a  person  of  yet  larger  propor- 
tions was  exhibited  at  Philadelphia. 

The  Koman  emperor  Maximilian  is  said  to  have  been 
no  less  than  nine  feet  high. 

Goliath,  the  Philistine,  slain  by  David,  is  recorded  to 
have  been  six  cubits  and  a  span :  that  is,  if  we  rightly 
estimate  the  ancient  Hebrew  cubit,  about  nine  and  a  half 
feet. 

Mention  is  undoubtedly  made,  in  the  Bible,  of  quite  a 


ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS.  307 

number  of  men,  of  gigantic  size  :  but  they  are  evidently- 
spoken  of  as  lusus  naturoe^  as  singular  phenomena,  as  rare 
exceptions  to  the  general  rule,  and,  because  exceptions^ 
therefore  remarkable,  and  mentioned  as  such. 

Now  all  history  certifies  the  fact,  that  such  rare  exam- 
ples of  gigantic  size,  have  occurred  in  all  ages :  and  un- 
doubted testimony,  nay  indeed  our  own  observation  as- 
sures us,  persons  of  such  gigantic  size,  do  still,  occasion- 
ally, appear  in  society. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  improbability  in  the  account 
given  in  the  Bible,  of  persons,  and  occasionally,  of  fami- 
lies, and  perhaps  of  whole  tribes  of  unusual,  of  even 
gigantic  dimensions. 

In  Gen.  xiv.  5,  mention  is  made  of  a  race,  termed  Ke- 
phaim,  who  were  settled  beyond  Jordan,  in  Ashteroth 
Kernaim :  they  were  defeated  by  Chedorlaomer.  Of  this 
race,  in  the  time  of  Moses  there  remained  alone,  Og, 
King  of  Bashan.  (Deut.  iii.  10.)  The  coffin  of  iron 
here  spoken  of,  (although  this  passage  is,  by  some,  sup- 
posed to  be  an  interpolation,  by  a  later  hand,)  was  yet 
existing  in  the  writer's  time,  and  was  preserved  in  Kab- 
bath,  a  city  of  the  Ammonites.  This  coffin  was  nine 
cubits  long,  and  four  broad.  The  person  for  whose 
corpse  such  a  coffin  was  necessary,  must  have  been  of 
gigantic  stature,  upwards  of  thirteen  feet  high,  and  large 
in  proportion. 

Now  we  know  that  in  the  last  century,  Turner  the 
naturalist  reported  that  he  saw,  near  the  Eio  de  la  Plata, 
in  South  America,  a  race  of  giants,  from  the  interior, 
totally  naked ;  and  one  of  whom,  the  tallest  among  them, 
was  twelve  feet  high.     (Rees,  Cycl.  art.  Giant.) 

The  Patagonians,  on  the  coast  of  South  America  to  the 


308  ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS. 

north  and  north-west  of  Cape  Horn,  are  universally  ad- 
mitted to  be  above  the  ordinary  height,  varying  from 
six  to  seven  feet,  or  a  little  more. 

Humboldt  tells  us  that  the  Guayaquilists  measure  six 
and  a  half  feet,  and  that  the  Paraguas  are  equally  tall : 
while  the  Caribbees  of  Cumana,  are  distinguished  by 
their  almost  gigantic  size,  from  all  the  other  nations  he 
had  met  with  in  the  New  World.  (See  Pritchard's  Re- 
searches, vol.  V.  p.  489.) 

By  the  earlier  Spanish  navigators,  the  Patagoniaus 
were  stated  to  measure  seven  feet  four  inches.  This  ac- 
count seems  to  be  somewhat  exaggerated.  More  recent 
travellers,  such  as  Bougainville,  Wallis,  Carteret,  and 
Falkner,  tell  us  that  the  Patagonians  usually  measure 
from  six  to  seven  feet.  (See  Humboldt's  Cosmos.  See 
also  Kitto,  Cyclop,  of  Bib.  Lit.  art.  Giant.) 

The  Rephaim  above  spoken  of,  are  mentioned  in  Job 
xxvi.  5,  although  the  word  rephaim  is  there  rendered 
dead  things:  comp.  Josh.  xii.  4,  and  xiii.  12. 

In  Numbers  xiii.  28,  the  Anakim  are  spoken  of  as 
a  race  of  giants.  The  spies  sent  forth  to  explore  and  to 
ascertain  the  condition  of  the  Canaanites  and  of  their  land 
reported,  "  We  saw  there  the  giants^  the  sons  of  Anak^  which 
came  of  the  giants  ;  and  we  were  in  our  own  sight  as  grass- 
hoppers ;  and  so  we  were  in  their  sight"  vers.  32,  33 :  and 
compare  Deut.  ix.  2,  and  ii.  10 ;  see  also  Josh.  xi.  22. 

In  Asa,  in  Gath,  and  in  Ashdod,  persons  of  this  gigan- 
tic race  long  continued.  (Judges  i.  20.  Josh.  xiv.  12.)  Of 
this  race  Goliath  was.     (1  Sam.  xvii.  4.) 

The  Zammoumim  also,  (Deut.  xxi.  20,)  who  dwelt  in 
the  land  of  Ammon,  are  spoken  of,  as  a  race  of  giants. 

There  can,  then,  be  no  doubt  the  Jewish  Scriptures 


ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS.  809 

do  teach,  that  in  ancient  times,  at  least  from  Moses  to  the 
time  of  David,  men  of  gigantic  stature,  formidable  excep- 
tions to  the  general  standard  of  human  bulk  and  stature, 
were  found  occasionally  in  the  land  of  Canaan ;  and  they 
were,  generally,  as  wicked  as  they  were  gigantic. 

That  such  gigantic  stature  is  described  among  the  an- 
tediluvians, is  not  quite  so  clear.  The  Hebrew  word, 
translated  in  the  text  giants^  is  nei^hilim^  literally  fallen 
ones,  or  persons  falling  on  others. 

Mon.  Cahen  introduces  this  chapter  (Gen.  vi.)  with  the 
heading,  ^^  The  Fourth  Document:  relative  to  the  mixture 
(or  confusion,  melange,)  of  the  races.^^ 

In  V.  2  he  adopts  the  rendering  of  Onkelos,  viz.,  for 
^^sons  of  Godj^^  sons  of  the  great  or  the  noble,  (des 
grands ;)  "  daughters  of  men,^^  he  translates  ^^  files  du  peu- 
pk,'"  young  women  of  the  common  people:  and  he  re- 
marks, "The  supposition  of  tvjo  classes  is  probable.  The 
heroes  of  Greece  were,  for  the  most  part,  sons  of  her 
gods ;  and  she  attributes  the  same  origin  to  the  giants, 
the  Cyclops — and  surely  different  countries  might  have 
the  same  traditions." 

M.  Cahen,  though  a  Jew,  a  learned  Hebraist,  and,  I 
believe,  a  rabbin,  is  a  French  philosopher;  and  he  is, 
undoubtedly,  a  very  liberal  expositor  of  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures. 

On  Gen.  vi.  4 :  Giants  were  then  on  the  earth,  even 
after  the  sons  of  the  great  had  intercourse  with  daugh- 
ters of  the  people,  (^.  e.  peasant-girls,  &c.,)  he  remarks,  in 
a  note: — ^^  Giants,  nephilim:  In  those  ages  over  which 
the  flame  of  history  could  casts  only  a  feeble  (pale)  light, 
everything  magnifies  itself;  the  duration  of  human  life, 
human  dimensions,  the  bodily  strength  of  men,  like  ob- 


810  ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS. 

jects  seen  across  an  intervening  obscurity.  But,  with 
the  progress  of  reason,  everything  resumes  its  proper 
proportions. 

"This  tradition  is  of  very  high  antiquity.  Moreover, 
the  Hebrew  word  seems  to  denote  men  fallen,  {des  hommes 
dechitsy) 

Assuredly  M.  Cahen  is  a  liberal  and  a  rationalistic 
interpreter  of  the  old  Hebrew  Scripture.  The  Jewish 
writer  Aquila  translates  the  term,  nejyhilim^  ^^men  who 
attackj^^  i.  e.  who  fall  with  impetuosity  on  their  enemies ! 
Symmachus  translates  it,  violent  men,  cruel,  men  whose 
only  rule  of  action  is  violence. 

Another  term,  translated  by  the  Septuagint,  giant,  is 
gtbbor,  meaning  strictly  a  strong  man,  a  brave  warrior. 
Such  was  Nimrod.  (Gen.  x.  8 :  see  also  Ps.  xix.  5.  Isa. 
iii.  2  ;  xiii.  3  ;  xlix.  24,  25.     Ezek.  xxxix.  18,  20.) 

There  is,  therefore,  nothing  in  this  passage  in  Genesis 
(chap,  vi.)  which  imperatively  requires  us  to  understand 
the  term  giants,  in  its  ordinary  sense,  as  denoting  persons 
of  unusual  stature  and  bulk.  They  may  have  been  such. 
Persons  of  gigantic  dimensions  are  spoken  of  in  other 
parts  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures ;  ancient  fables  and  tradi- 
tions among  nearly  all  nations  mention  such,  as  e.  g.  the 
Cyclops  and  the  Titans  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Eo- 
mans.  History  records  instances  of  such  uncommon 
stature  in  many  countries,  and  in  almost  every  age ;  and 
we  know  that  even  yet  instances  of  the  kind  do  occa- 
sionally present  themselves.  They  are  now  extraordi- 
nary cases,  and  they  excite  wonder  as  such ;  and  as  such, 
they  are  mentioned  in  the  Mosaic  narrative. 

There  is,  therefore,  certainly  nothing  improbable  or 
extravagant  in  the  whole  story ;  and,  consequently,  the 


ANTEDILUVIAN  GIANTS.  811 

objections  urged  against  this  portion  of  Genesis  on  the  al- 
leged ground  of  its  fictitious  character,  are  void  of  force. 
Moreover,  the  whole  narrative  furnishes  an  impressive 
illustration  of  the  danger  consequent  on  undervaluing  a 
knowledge  of  the  true  God,  and  of  the  guilt  of  slighting 
the  privileges  attendant  on  access  to  the  worship  of  the 
living  God,  with  its  several  ordinances  and  sacred  rites. 
Such  neglect  leads  to  carelessness  of  the  highest  duties, 
a  thorough  worldliness  of  spirit,  open  apostasy  from  God, 
and  to  every  species  of  gross  wickedness.  It  provokes, 
also,  the  displeasure  of  God ;  it  wearies  out  his  long-suf- 
fering ;  and  eventually  it  calls  down  his  heavy  judgments, 
as  in  the  deluge,  which  destroyed  the  whole  ungodly 
antediluvian  world. 


r  ; 


LECTURE  IX. 

THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL. 

PART  I. 

Gen.  vii.  23. — "  And  every  living  substance  was  destroyed  which  was 
upon  the  face  of  the  ground,  both  man  and  cattle,  and  the  creeping 
things,  and  the  fowl  of  the  heavens ;  and  they  were  destroyed  from 
the  earth ;  and  Noah  only  remained  alive,  and  they  that  were  with 
him  in  the  ark." 

The  Bible  was  not  given,  most  assuredly,  to  serve  as 
a  text-book  of  science,  nor  as  mere  food  for  curiosity,  nor 
yet  as  a  repository  of  materials  for  the  gratification  of 
a  refined  literary  taste  ;  and  yet,  in  the  events  it  records 
or  alludes  to,  in  the  descriptions  it  furnishes,  brief  though 
they  are,  there  is  much  to  stimulate  curiosity,  much  to 
gratify  the  most  refined  taste,  and  much  which  the  deep- 
est researches  of  science  may  be  well  employed  to  illus- 
trate and  to  explain.  And  certainly  no  other  of  the 
teachings  of  the  Bible  is  more  remarkable  than  is  that 
of  a  mighty  deluge  in  the  time  of  Noah. 

Many  centuries  had  elapsed  since  the  creation  of  man 
upon  the  earth,  and  since  his  fall,  by  the  transgression  of 
the  first  human  pair,  in  Eden. 

Population  had  greatly  increased ;  and  it  seems  to 
have  spread  extensively  over  the  earth,  for  we  read  of 
cities,  and  the  arts  of  life,  and  of  civilization  already 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  313 

cultivated.  (Gen.  iv.  17,  20,  21,  22.)  But  wickedness 
was  everywhere  prevalent,  and  impiety  reigned.  Gen. 
vii.  1,  "  The  earth  was  corrupt  before  God,  and  the  earth 
was  filled  with  violence. "  Whereupon,  the  Most  High  de- 
termined to  destroy  the  whole  race  of  man,  and  with 
him,  all  living  creatures  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  saving 
only  Noah,  with  his  family,  and  a  sufficient  number  of 
pairs  of  all  living  creatures,  inhabitants  of  the  dry  land, 
that  were  to  be  preserved  with  Noah,  in  an  ark,  or  large 
ship,  constructed  by  Noah  according  to  directions  re- 
ceived from  God.  The  materials  and  the  dimensions  of 
this  ark  are  minutely  described  in  the  sacred  narrative. 

Nearly  a  century  and  a  quarter,  as  it  would  seem,  was 
Noah  busied  in  preparing  this  huge  vessel,  to  serve  as  a 
safe  refuge  for  himself  and  his  family  during  the  fierce 
conflict  of  the  elements  attendant  on  the  coming  inun- 
dation ;  and  to  preserve  alive  seed  of  all  living  crea- 
tures, so  that  when  the  flood  should  subside,  the  earth 
might  be  again  replenished  with  living  occupants,  as  be- 
fore.    (Gen.  vi.  17-22.) 

All  this  was  done.  The  ark  was  constructed ;  due 
provision  of  appropriate  food  was  made  for  all ;  man 
and  beast,  reptile  and  fowl,  were  all  shut  up  in  the  ark ; 
when,  in  the  six  hundredth  year  of  Noah,  and  on  the 
seventeenth  day  of  the  second  month,  the  fountains  of 
the  great  deep  were  broken  up,  and  the  windows  of 
heaven  were  opened.  Copious  torrents  of  rain  descended 
day  and  night,  for  many  weeks  continuously,  so  that  the 
waters  increased  and  spread  over  the  whole  earth,  cov- 
ering the  plains,  the  hills,  and  at  length  the  loftiest 
mountain  summits,  under  the  whole  heaven,  several  cu- 
bits deep.     (Gen.  vii.  10.) 

14 


$14  THE   DELUGE    UNIVERSAL. 

For  one  hundred  and  fifty  days,  or  about  five  months, 
the  waters  prevailed  over  the  whole  earth.  After  this 
they  gradually  subsided,  and  at  length  disappeared, 
leaving  the  earth  bare,  as  before,  but  utterly  desolate 
and  uninhabited  ;  for  "  every  living  substance  was  destroyed 
which  was  upon  the  face  of  the  ground^  both  man  and  cattle, 
and  the  creeping  things,  and  the  fowl  of  the  heavens  ;  and  they 
were  destroyed  from  iJie  earth :  and  Noah  only  remained  alive, 
and  they  that  were  with  him  in  Uie  ark^ 

From  the  whole  narrative  given  in  Genesis,  it  is,  I 
think,  plain  that  the  writer  designed  his  readers  to  un- 
derstand, that  the  deluge  he  describes  was  not  a  mere 
local  inundation,  desolating  only  one  large  province  of 
Asia,  but  that  it  was  universal — strictly  and  literally  uni- 
versal— covering  the  entire  surface  of  the  habitable 
globe,  and  submerging  all  lands— just  so  far,  at  least, 
as  animal  life  had  then  extended  over  the  earth.  More- 
over, that  this  narrative  is  to  be  received  as  a  true  his- 
torical record,  and  not  an  allegory,  is  plain  from  the 
manner  in  which  the  flood  of  Noah  is  mentioned  and 
referred  to  in  the  New  Testament.  Thus  our  Lord  says: 
"  In  the  days  of  Noah,  they  did  eat,  they  drank,  they  married 
wives,  they  were  given  in  marriage,  until  the  day  that  Noah 
entered  into  the  ark,  and  the  flood  came  and  destroyed  them 
all  /"     (Luke  xvii.  27  :  compare  Matt.  xxiv.  37-39.) 

The  Apostle  Peter  mentions  the  deluge  in  each  of 
his  epistles :  thus,  2  Pet.  ii.  6,  "  God  spared  not  the  old 
world ;  but  saved  Noah,  the  eighth  person,  a  preacher  of 
righteousness  ;  bringing  in  the  flood  on  the  world  of  the  un- 
godly.'^ And  again,  1  Pet.  iii.  20  :  "  The  long-suffering  of 
God  waited  in  the  days  of  Noah,  while  the  ark  was  a-prepar- 
ing,  wherein  few,  that  is  eight  souls,  were  savedJ^     And  the 


THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  315 

writer  to  tlie  Hebrews  tells  us,  (xi.  17,)  ^^  By  faith,  Noah, 
being  warned  of  God,  prepared  an  ark,  to  the  saving  of  his 
house. ^^ 

Bj  all,  therefore,  who  believe  in  the  inspiration  of  the 
Bible,  the  fact  is  held  as  certain,  that  a  great  deluge  of 
waters  took  place  in  the  days  of  Noah,  by  which  all 
mankind,  and  all  living  creatures  inhabiting  the  land, 
and  incapable  of  continued  existence  in  water,  perished 
from  the  face  of  the  earth ;  while  eight  persons  only, 
viz.,  Noah  and  his  family,  together  with  the  animals 
sheltered  with  him  in  the  ark,  alone  survived ;  and  from 
the  descendants  of  those  so  saved,  the  present  living  ten- 
ants of  the  globe,  human  and  irrational,  have  sprung. 
Against  this  account  of  a  deluge,  (interpret  the  record,  and 
explain  the  facts  as  you  may,)  several  imposing  objections 
present  themselves. 

That  the  Noachian  deluge  was  universal,  covering  the 
entire  surface  of  the  globe,  has  been  the  generally  re- 
ceived interpretation. 

But  to  avoid  the  obvious  difficulties  attending  this  lite- 
ral interpretation,  some  men,  and  those  of  no  mean  note, 
in  both  the  scientific  and  the  theological  world,  have  re- 
sorted to  the  hypothesis  of  a  partial  deluge,  extending 
only  over  the  comparatively  small  portion  of  the  earth's 
surface,  which,  as  they  suppose,  could  then  have  been 
occupied  by  man. 

To  support  this  hypothesis,  they  understand  the  strong 
language  and  the  universal  terms  employed  in  the  narra- 
tive, as  applying  merely  to  a  portion  of  the  earth.  This 
portion  they  suppose  to  have  been  completely  submerged, 
and  its  highest  hills  covered.  The  entire  race  of  man- 
kind, saving  only  the  eight  persons  in  the  ark,  and  all 


316  THE  DELUGE   UNIVEKSAL. 

the  animals  inhabiting  that  extensive  region,  they  admit, 
were  destroyed :  while  they  suppose  there  may  have  been 
entire  continents  not  affected  by  this  local  inundation, 
and  left  still  swarming  with  their  appropriate  animal  oc- 
cupants. 

This  interpretation  they  strengthen  by  adducing  other 
passages  of  Scripture,  in  which  like  universal  terms  are  used 
in  a  limited  sense,  as  e.  g.  when  (Gen.  xli.  56)  the /amine 
in  the  days  of  Joseph,  is  said  to  have  prevailed  in  all  Hie 
earthy  while,  (as  they  tell  us,)  a  portion  only  of  Asia  Mi- 
nor can  be  intended.*    As  also  in  Acts  ii.  6,  where  it  is 

*  If  the  Chinese  annals  are  to  be  credited,  a  seven  years'  famine  pre- 
vailed also  over  the  entire  country  of  China,  also,  at  a  period  which  seems 
to  synchronize  with  that  of  the  patriarch  Joseph  :  and  in  that  case,  the 
terms  used  in  Gen.  xli.  66,  could  hardly  be  understood  in  a  very  restricted 
sense.  (See  Martin's  China,  vol.  i.  p.  196.  M.  Pauthier's  Chine,  I'Univers 
Pitt.  pp.  65,  66.  Du  Halde's  China,  vol.  i.  p.  299.  Lond.  edit.  1736:  and 
GutzlafF's  China  Opened,  vol.  i.  p.  807.) 

On  the  credit  to  be  attached  to  the  Chinese  histories,  Mr.  Gutzlaflf  offers 
the  following  sensible  remarks  : — "  The  history  of  all  nations,  except  that 
of  the  people  of  God,  commences  with  fables  and  mythological  traditions, 
and  it  only  assumes  a  more  authentic  shape  when  the  nation  has  arrived 
at  a  certain  stage  of  civilization.  Before  Confucius,  China  had  no  au- 
thors, much  less  au  historian,  so  that  his  own  annals  were  transmitted  by 
tradition,  through  a  course  of  2000  years !  Under  such  circumstances, 
what  correctness  can  we  expect  even  after  the  most  laborious  researches  1 
On  these  annals,  however,  the  antiquity  of  the  Chinese  empire  is  founded 
with  as  much  claim  to  our  belief,  as  might  be  accorded  to  an  English 
writer  of  the  present  day,  who  should  sit  down  to  compose  the  history 
of  the  ancient  Britons  before  the  invasion  of  the  Romans,  and  not  only 
give  the  names  of  their  kings,  but  also  repeat  the  speeches  they  uttered 
in  council,  or  the  debates  of  their  Druidical  assemblies.  We,  therefore, 
consider  the  history  previous  to  Yaou  (2337  b.c.)  as  fabulous,  from  thence 
to  Confucius  (550  b.c.)  as  uncertain,  from  Confucius  to  the  Sung  dynasty 
(a.d.  960)  it  may  be  deemed  as  correct  as  that  of  Greece  ;  and  since  that 
period  it  is  fully  authentical. 

"  We  are  aware  that  the  calculation  of  eclipses  has  been  brought  for- 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  817 

said  there  were  at  Jerusalem,  on  the  day  of  pentecost, 
devout  men  dwelling  in  every  nation  under  heaven^  and 
again  in  Deut.  ii.  25,  where  it  is  declared  that  God  will 
begin  to  put  the  dread  of  the  Jews  upon  the  nations 
under  the  whole  heaven:  which  we  know,  with  absolute 
certainty,  never  was  fulfilled,  if  the  promise  be  under- 
stood literally. 

Were  the  mere  universality  of  some  of  the  terms  em- 
ployed in  the  Mosaic  narrative,  the  sole  ground  of  objec- 
tion to  the  hypothesis  of  a  local  inundation  only,  in  the 
days  of  Noah,  that  hypothesis  might,  perhaps,  be  deemed 
admissible.  But  there  are  other  and  more  serious  diffi- 
culties attending  it,  to  be  hereafter  examined. 

Moreover,  the  language  employed  in  Gen.  vii.  derives 
its  force  as  expressive  of  complete  universality,  not  merely 
nor  mainly  from  the  meaning  of  the  several  individual 
terms,  but  from  the  structure  of  the  whole.  The  com- 
plete covering  of  the  entire  earth's  surface  is  asserted, 
and  the  sabmergence  of  the  loftiest  mountain  summits, 
not  merely  on  the  earth,  or  the  land,  but  under  the  whole 
heaven^  is  affirmed.  Further  still,  the  destruction  of  ani-' 
mal  life,  human  and  brute,  is  declared  to  have  been  com- 
plete :  and  then,  as  if  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  the 
saved  are  enumerated,  Noah  and  those  with  him  in  the 
ark,  and  these  are  declared  to  have  been  the  only  living 
creatures  preserved  from  destruction :  "  and  Noah  only 
remained  alive^  and  they  that  wer^  with  him  in  the  arhj^ 

ward,  to  prove  the  high  antiquity  of  the  Chinese  empire.  If  Europeans 
had  not  given  themselves  trouble  to  verify  them,  no  Chinaman  would  ever 
have  dreamed  of  bringing  them  forth  as  a  proof;  for  it  required  much 
ingenuity  even  to  find  the  eclipses  in  their  classical  works."  (China 
Opened,  Gutzlaff,  vol.  1,  p.  297.  See  also  on  this  point  the  Edinburgh 
Cabinet  Library,  China,  vol.  1.  pp.  40,  41.) 


818  THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

This  closing  declaration  applies  to  the  human  race  and 
to  all  creatures  in  which  was  the  breath  of  life,  not  merely 
in  any  one  land,  or  province,  but  under  tlie  whole  heaven  I 

Whether  his  assertion  be  true  or  not,  it  would  seem 
difficult  to  understand  the  language  of  Moses  in  this  nar- 
rative, as  conveying  the  idea  of  anything  less  than  a  del- 
uge literally  universal  over  the  entire  globe,  just  as  it  has 
been  commonly  understood. 

If  the  language  of  Moses  does  not  convey  the  idea  of  a 
universal  deluge,  it  would  be  impossible  to  construct  a 
paragraph  that  should  unequivocally  convey  that  idea. 
But,  however  the  account  given  by  Moses  of  the  deluge 
be  understood,  as  to  the  extent  of  surface  covered  by  it, 
it  will  hardly  be  questioned  that  as  to  mankind^  his  doc- 
trine is,  the  Noachian  deluge  was  universal.  Eight  human 
beings  only,  survived  that  calamity:  and  from  those 
eight  all  the  several  families  and  nations  of  men  now  ex- 
isting, are  descended. 

Such  an  event  as  the  deluge  must  have  made  a  deep  im- 
pression upon  the  minds  of  the  survivors  ;  and  the  memxyry 
ofiliat  event  may  well  be  expected  to  show  itself  promi- 
nently and  strongly,  in  the  traditions  handed  down  to  their 
posterity ;  and  consequently  the  tradition  of  it  may  be 
looked  for  in  the  oldest  legends  of  the  several  leading 
races  or  divisions  of  the  human  family,  wherever  found. 

And  such  is  the  fact,  and  most  strikingly  so ;  and  that, 
too,  in  nearly  every  country  under  heaven,  even  those 
most  remote  from  the  supposed  site  of  the  earliest  settle- 
ments after  the  flood,  and  those  most  remote  from  each 
other. 

The  ceremonies  of  most  of  the  nations  of  antiquity 
were  full  of  idolatrous  references  to  the  preservation  of 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  319 

man  from  the  deluge.  "If  we  take  the  circuit  of  the 
globe,  (says  a  quaint  old  writer,  Stackhouse,)  and  inquire 
of  the  inhabitants  of  every  climate,  we  shall  find  that 
^  ike  fame  of  the  deluge  is  gone  through  the  earth,^  and  that 
m  every  part  of  the  known  world,  there  are  certain 
records,  or  traditions  of  it." 

In  almost  all  nations,  from  the  remotest  periods,  there 
have  prevailed  certain  mythological  narratives,  and 
legendary  tales  of  the  deluge,  or  of  similar  catastrophes. 
Such  narratives  formed  a  part  of  the  first  rude  belief  of 
the  Egyptians,  Chaldeans,  Greeks,  Scythians,  and  of  the 
Celtic  tribes.  They  have  also  been  discovered  among 
the  Peruvians  and  Mexicans,  and  the  South  Sea  Island- 
ers. (See  Kitto,  vol.  i.  p.  642.  Dr.  J.  Pye  Smith,  p.  74. 
Consult,  also,  Sir  W.  Drummond's  Origines,  vol.  i.  chap, 
vii.  p.  57,  &c.  Faber's  Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  ii.  chap.  iv. 
pp.  106-124.) 

'■'  Of  this  universal  deluge,  (says  Dr.  Stillingfleet,  in 
his  erudite  work,  Origines  Sacrse,  vol.  i.  p.  146,)  we  have 
most  clear  and  concurring  testimonies  of  most  ancient 
nations  of  the  world.  For  which  purpose,  Grotius  and 
others  have  produced  the  testimony  of  Berosus  the  Chal- 
dsean,  and  of  Josephus,  concerning  the  flood,  and  the  ark 
in  which  Noah  was  preserved :  that  of  Abydenus,  out 
of  Cyril  and  Eusebius,  concerning  Xisanthrus'  or  Noah's 
sending  out  of  the  birds  to  see  if  the  flood  was  assuaged : 
and  of  Alexander  Polyhistor,  concerning  the  preservation 
of  animals  in  the  ark ;  of  Plutarch,  concerning  the  sending 
out  of  the  dove :  of  Lucian,  de  Dea  Syria,  concerning  the 
whole  story  :  and  so  of  Molon  and  Nicolaus  Damascenus. 
Besides,  it  is  manifest  by  others,  how  among  the  Chal- 
daeans,  the  memory  of  Noah  was  preserved,  under  the 


320  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

fable  of  Oannes,  which  had  part  of  a  fish  and  part  of  a 
man  :  as  is  evident  from  the  fragments  of  ApoUodorus 
Abydenos,  and  Alexander  Polyhistor,  preserved  in 
Eusebius'  Greek  Chronica.  Among  the  Chinese^  under  the 
name  of  Pu-oncuus,  who,  by  them  is  said  to  have  escaped 
alone,  with  his  family,  out  of  the  universal  deluge ;  saith 
Isaac  Vossius,  who  supposeth  Pu,  or  Pi,  to  be  only  a 
prefix  to  the  name,  so  that  Pu-oncuus,  is  the  same  with 
Nibxog^  I.  e.  Noah. 

"Martinius  tells  us,  *de  diluviomulta  est  apud  Sinicos 
scriptores  mentio,'  that  the  ancient  writers  of  Chinese 
history  speak  much  of  the  flood,  (of  a  flood.)  Johannes 
de  Laet  tells  us  out  of  Lescharbotus,  how  constant  the 
tradition  of  the  flood  is  among  the  Indians,  both  in  New 
France,  Peru,  and  other  parts."  (Orig.  Sacrae,  vol.  i. 
pp.  146,  147.    Faber,  vol.  i.  pp.  243-245.) 

The  early  traditions  of  the  Gentoos  describe  a  deluge, 
and  the  escape  of  one  family ;  and  they  detail  many  par- 
ticulars strongly  resembling  the  history  of  Noah  as  given 
in  Genesis.  The  sending  forth  of  a  dove  out  of  the  great 
ship,  by  Xisanthrus,  and  its  subsequent  return,  bearing 
a  green  leaf,  are  distinctly  stated  in  these  Gentoo  tradi- 
tions. Baron  Humboldt  (the  most  extensively  travelled, 
the  most  acutely  observant,  and  the  most  profoundly 
learned  of  all  travellers,)  tells  us,  that  of  the  different 
nations  who  inhabit  Mexico,  paintings  representing  the 
deluge  of  Coxcoe,  are  found  among  the  Aztecs,  the  Miz- 
tecs,  the  Zapotecs,  the  Tlastaltecks,  and  the  Mechoacans. 
The  Noah,  Xisuthrus  or  Menou  of  these  nations,  is  called 
Coxcox,  Teocipactli,  or  Tezpi.  He  saved  himself  and 
his  wife  Xochiquetzel  in  a  bark,  or  according  to  other 
traditions,  on  a  raft  of  Ala-huete,  (the  Cupressus  disticha,) 


THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL.  821 

but  according  to  the  Mecliouacans,  lie  embarked  in  a 
spacious  Acalli,  with  his  wife,  his  children,  several  ani- 
mals, and  grain,  the  preservation  of  which  was  impor- 
tant to  mankind.  When  the  Great  Spirit,  Tezcallipoca, 
ordered  the  waters  to  withdraw,  Tezpi  sent  out  from  the 
ship  a  vulture,  the  Zopilote.  This  bird,  which  feeds  on 
dead  flesh,  did  not  return,  on  account  of  the  great  num- 
ber of  carcasses  left  on  the  ground  by  the  retiring 
waters.  Tezpi  then  sent  oat  other  birds,  one  of  which, 
the  humming-bird,  alone  returned,  holding  in  its  beak  a 
branch  covered  with  leaves.  Tezpi  seeing  thus  that  fresh 
verdure  began  to  clothe  the  soil,  left  his  bark,  near  the 
mountain  of  Colluacan."    (Humboldt's  Researches,  p.  65.) 

In  this  Mexican  tradition,  the  Mosaic  narrative  is  given 
almost  entire,  only  the  vulture  here  figures  in  place  of 
the  raven ;  and  instead  of  the  dove,  the  humming-bird, 
better  known  to  the  Mexicans,  is  introduced.  In  another 
part  of  the  same  country,  a  similar  story  is  handed  down 
by  tradition  ;  but  it  goes  further,  and  makes  mention  of 
giants,  and  of  the  building  of  an  artificial  hill,  in  shape 
like  a  mound,  a  memorial  of  the  mountain  on  which  the 
ship  rested.  This  hill  was  designed  to  rise  above  the 
clouds,  but  the  gods,  in  anger  at  the  impious  attempt, 
hurled  fire  on  the  pyramid,  killed  many  of  the  workmen, 
and  scattered  the  rest. 

This  curious  tradition,  not  only  strangely  corroborates 
the  narrative  of  Moses,  but  it  may  serve  to  throw  light 
on  the  origin  and  design  of  the  mounds,  so  numerous  in 
the  West,  and  possibly,  also,  on  the  origin  and  primary 
design  of  the  numerous  Pyramids  of  Egypt.  Resting- 
places  for  the  dead, — in  their  form  commemorating  the 
first  resting-place  after  the  furious  storms  of  the  deluge, 

3  4* 


THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

to  the  one  sole  family  of  man  that  survived  the  catas- 
trophe. 

"  The  Crees, "  also,  a  tribe  of  Arctic  Indians,  "  all  spoke 
of  a  universal  deluge,  from  which  one  family  alone  escap- 
ed, with  all  kinds  of  birds  and  beasts,  on  a  huge  raft." 
So  says  Dr.  Kichardson,  the  companion  of  Franklin  in 
his  polar  expedition. 

Humboldt  mentions,  also,  similar  traditions  among  the 
various  tribes  of  South  American  Indians,  inhabiting  the 
high  inland  regions  on  the  banks  of  the  Orinoko. 

Even  Indians  of  the  Choctaw  tribe,  some  miserable 
remnants  of  which  still  lurk  around  the  suburbs  of  our 
city,  (Mobile,)  had,  it  is  well  known,  when  they  first  came 
into  contact  with  the  whites,  traditions  handed  down 
from  their  remotest  ancestors,  of  a  mighty  deluge,  from 
which  a  small  number  of  persons  only,  escaped  on  a  rafl. 
In  these  North  American  Indian  traditions,  a  musk-rat 
figures  as  the  substitute  of  Noah's  dove. 

Now  all  these  traditions,  (and  similar  ones  have  been 
found  lingering  in  the  heart  of  Africa,)  so  widely  spread, 
80  ancient,  so  carefully  preserved,  so  varying  in  non-es- 
sentials, so  identical  in  all  the  main  circumstances,  and 
all  pointing  to  the  one  same  great  event,  must  have  had 
a  common  origin,  and  an  origin  in  truth.  They  could 
not  be  the  result  of  chance,  they  could  not  have  origina- 
ted in  fancy  or  in  falsehood ;  and  in  this  case,  collusion 
is  altogether  out  of  the  question. 

These  traditions  do,  then,  confirm  the  narrative  in  Gen- 
esis, and  go  far  to  prove  it  true.  They  do  not,  indeed, 
prove  that  the  deluge  was  geographically  universal;  but 
they  do  prove  that  it  was  universal  ethnographically. 
(See  Harcourt's  Doctrine  of  the  Deluge,  vol.  i.  pp.  29-35.) 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  323 

These  several  traditions,*  so  harmonious,  furnish  at 
least  strong  ground  to  believe,  either  that  there  have  been, 
at  a  very  remote  period,  as  many  great  deluges  as  there 

*  The  sketch  of  antediluvian  history  given  by  Moses,  in  which  we  find 
many  dark  passages,  is  followed  by  the  narrative  of  a  deluge  which  de- 
stroyed the  whole  race  of  men,  except  four  pairs ;  an  historical  fact  ad- 
mitted as  true  by  every  nation,  to  whose  literature  we  have  access,  and 
particularly  by  the  ancient  Hindus,  who  have  allotted  an  entire  Purana  to 
the  detail  of  that  event,  which  they  relate,  as  usual,  in  symbols  or  allego- 
ries.  (Sir  Wm.  Jones'  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  iii.  p.  425.) 

Mr.  Mitford  in  his  learned  work,  •'  The  History  of  Greece,"  thus  ex- 
presses himself,  "  The  tradition  of  all  nations,  and  appearances  in  every 
country,  bear  witness  scarcely  less  explicit  than  the  writings  of  Moses,  to 
that  general  flood  which  nearly  destroyed  the  whole  human  race ;  and 
those  ablest  Greek  authors  who  have  attempted  to  trace  the  history  of 
mankind  to  its  source,  all  refer  to  such  an  event  for  the  beginning  of  the 
present  system  of  things  on  earth."  (Mitford's  Greece,  vol.  i.  ^  i.  p.  3  : 
Plato's  3d  Dialogue  on  Legislation.) 

The  Iroquois,  a  tribe  of  American  Indians,  are  said  to  have  preserved 
a  curious  tradition  of  the  primeval  history.  "  They  believe  that  the  first 
woman  was  seduced  from  her  obedience  to  God ;  and  that  in  consequence 
of  it,  she  was  banished  from  heaven.  She  afterwards  bore  two  sons.  One 
of  these,  having  armed  himself  with  an  offensive  weapon,  attacked  and 
slew  the  other,  who  was  unable  to,  resist  his  superior  force.  More  chil- 
dren afterwards  sprang  from  the  same  woman,  who  were  the  ancestors 
of  all  mankind."  (Mceurs  des  Sauvages,  tom.  i.  p.  43,  as  quoted  by 
Faber,  Orig.  Pag.  Idol.  vol.  ii.  p.  38.) 

In  the  learned  work  of  Mr.  Bryant  on  Mythology,  he  thus  reasons, 
"  If  the  deluge  really  happened  at  the  time  recorded  by  Moses,  those  na- 
tions whose  monuments  are  preserved,  or  w?iose  writings  are  accessible, 
must  have  retained  memorials  of  an  event  so  stupendous  and  compar- 
atively so  recent;  but,  in  fact,  they  have  retained  such  memorials." 
This  reasoning,  (remarks  Sir  Wm.  Jones,)  seems  just,  and  the  fact  is  true 
beyond  controversy.     (See  Asiat.  Resear.  vol.  iii.  p.  429.) 

For  further  accounts  of  traditions  respecting  the  deluge,  consult  Har- 
court's  Doctrine  of  the  Deluge,  vol.  i.  p.  29,  &c.  Faber's  Origin  of  Pagan 
Idolatry,  vol.  i,  pp.  206,  218;  vol.  ii.  chap.  iv.  pp.  106-129.  Faber's 
Hor83  Mosaicae,  chap.  iv.  Sumner  on  the  Records  of  Creation,  6th  Lond. 
ed.  1850.     Tomkins'  Hulsean  Prize  Essay,  1849. 


824  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

have  been  primitive  abodes  of  man,  in  all  tbese  several 
countries  ;  that  these  deluges  destroyed  the  entire  popu- 
lation of  all  these  several  countries,  with  all  the  animals 
then  existing  therein,  excepting  only  and  always,  in  each 
one  of  these  several  cases,  one  family  of  each  of  these 
primitive  tribes,  saved  by  the  same  means, — a  vessel,  an 
ark,  a  raft,  or  a  big  canoe ;  and  saved  with  the  accom- 
paniment of  animals,  and  of  food,  appropriate  to  them, — 
all  which  is  exceedingly  improbable,  we  might  almost 
say  impossible ;  or  else  these  numerous  accordant  tradi- 
tions prove  one  such  great  deluge,  from  which  one  family 
alone  was  preserved  ;  and,  that  of  that  one  family,  the  de- 
scendants have  been  scattered  abroad  into  all  these  seve- 
ral countries,  each  colony  bearing  with  it  a  distinct  tra- 
dition of  that  memorable  event,  a  tradition  that  has  been 
everywhere  preserved  with  wonderful  truthfulness  and 
accuracy,  and  hence  the  strong  resemblance,  and  almost 
identity  of  all  these  several  traditions. 

Sir  C.  Lyell,  the  great  English  geologist,  distinguished 
not  less  for  his  erudition,  his  classic  style  and  his  candor, 
than  fpr  his  science,  suggests  that,  since  floods  and  vol- 
canic eruptions  are  the  chief  instruments  of  devastation 
on  our  globe,  and  are,  indeed,  so  peculiarly  calculated  to 
inspire  a  lasting  terror,  and  are  so  often  fatal  in  their 
consequences  to  great  multitudes  of  people,  it  scarcely 
requires  the  passion  for  the  marvellous,  so  characteristic 
of  rude  and  half-civilized  nations,  still  less  the  exuberant 
imagination  of  Eastern  writers,  to  augment  them  into 
general  cataclysms  and  conflagrations. 

He  then  instances  the  great  flood  of  the  Chinese,  under 
the  emperor  Ya-ou  (see  the  book  called  Chou-King,  chap. 
Yao-Tien:  and  see  Pauthier's  China,  p.  12,)  B.C.  2800^ 


THE  DELUGE    UNIVERSAL.  325 

whicli  some  have  supposed  to  be  identical  with  Noah's 
deluge. 

This  Chinese  cataclysm  is  described  as  having  covered 
the  low  hills,  and  bathed  the  foot  of  the  highest  mountains^ 
tlireatening  to  drown  the  heavens,  &c.  Lyell  adopts  the  idea 
of  Mr.  Davis,  (who  visited  China  with  several  Brit- 
ish embassies,)  viz.,  that  this  was  an  ancient  but  local 
derangement  of  the  waters  of  the  Yellow  Eiver,  one  of  the 
largest  in  the  world,  and  which  might,  by  a  great  over- 
flowing, easily  inundate  the  finest  portion  of  China. 
Lyell  adds,  "  The  tradition  of  a  deluge  among  the  Arau- 
canian  Indians,  in  South  America,  may  be  explained  by 
reference  to  great  earthquake  waves,  which  have  re- 
peatedly rolled  over  part  of  Chili :  since  the  first  recorded 
flood  of  1590.  The  legend,  also,  of  the  ancient  Peru- 
vians, of  an  inundation,  long  before  the  reign  of  the  In- 
cas,  in  which  six  persons  only  were  saved  on  a  float,  re- 
lates to  a  region  which  has  been,  more  than  once,  over- 
whelmed by  inroads  of  the  ocean,  even  since  the  days  of 
Pizarro. 

''  The  submergence,  so  lately  as  1819,  of  a  wide  area  of 
country  in  Cutch,  in  British  India,  is  well  known,  when 
a  single  tower  only,  of  the  fort  of  Sindree,  was  left  visi- 
ble above  the  waste  of  waters.  All  this  may  serve  to 
prove  (adds  this  distinguished  geologist,)  how  easily  the 
catastrophes  of  modern  times  might  give  rise  to  tradi- 
tionary narratives,  among  a  rude  people,  of  floods  of  bound- 
less extent.'' 

Nations  without  written  records,  and  who  are  indebted 
for  all  their  knowledge  of  past  events  exclusively  to  oral 
tradition,  are  in  the  habit  of  confounding  in  one  legend, 
a  series  of  occurrences  and  incidents,  which  have  hap- 


326  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

pened  at  various  epochs.  They  mingle  these  legends  in 
their  superstitions,  and  consecrate  the  idea  in  their  re- 
ligious rites :  as  e.  g.  Humboldt  tells  us,  that  after  a  terri- 
ble earthquake  in  Cumana,  in  1766,  which  destroyed  a 
large  part  of  its  inhabitants,  the  ensuing  season,  rendered 
(as  is  common  in  such  cases,)  unusually  fertile  by  the 
abundant  rains  which  accompanied  the  subterranean  con- 
vulsions, was  celebrated  by  the  Indians  with  feasts,  and 
dances,  after  the  ideas  of  an  antique  superstition,  as  cele- 
brating the  destruction  of  the  world  and  the  approaching 
epoch  of  its  regeneration.  (Humboldt  and  Voy.  Kelat. 
Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  30.) 

These  rites  are  singularly  in  accordance  with  the  an- 
cient traditions  of  the  Brahmins,  and  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians. 

*'  Nor,"  says  Lyell,  "must  we  forget  that  the  supersti- 
tions of  a  savage  tribe  are  transmitted  through  all  the 
progressive  stages  of  society,  till  they  exert  a  powerful  in- 
fluence on  the  mind  even  of  the  philosopher."  (Princ. 
Geol.  1850,  pp.  8-10.) 

This  theory  of  the  great  geologist  is  ingenious  in  itself, 
and  is  strongly  presented :  and  were  such  ancient  legends 
found  only  in  two  or  three  countries,  this  theory  might 
be  admitted  as  satisfactory. 

But  the  tradition  of  an  ancient,  a  vast,  and  a  totally 
destructive  deluge,  destructive  to  all  the  race  of  man,  save 
one  family  only,  and  that  family  saved,  as  the  tradition 
uniformly  represents,  in  one  and  the  same  way,  by  means 
of  an  ark,  or  floating  vessel,  is  too  remarkable,  too  mi- 
nutely particular  in  all  the  points  of  its  identity,  and  too 
strongly  resembling  the  Mosaic  narrative,  to  be  account- 
ed for  by  a  vast  series  of  local  inundations,  in  vastly  nu- 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  327 

merous  countries,  far  separated  by  space,  and  by  time  too, 
yet  all  wrought  up  in  one,  almost  identical  legendary  tale. 
These  numerous  traditions,  found  everywhere  in  coun- 
tries so  wide  apart,  and  all  agreeing  so  wonderfully  in 
the  circumstances  of  one  calamity,  could  have  originated 
only  in  the  same  catastrophe,  experienced  by  the  remote 
ancestors  of  all  these  now  widely  separated  nations;  a 
catastrophe,  the  memory  of  which  was  preserved  and 
handed  down  by  tradition,  and  kept  alive  by  religious 
commemorative  rites ;  and  which,  on  the  occasional  oc- 
currence of  local  inundations,  in  the  different  countries 
where  the  colonies  of  descendants  had  settled,  would  be 
recalled  with  fresh  interest,  and  be  celebrated  with  re- 
newed vivacity, — each  such  recurring  calamity  adding 
some  new  feature  to  the  legend,  or  to  the  rite,  or  to 
both. 

The  universal  tradition  of  a  deluge,  shows  that  the  an- 
cestors of  all  nations  once  experienced  the  irruption  of  a 
mighty  deluge  of  waters  over  the  country  of  their  abode, 
from  which  one  family  alone  of  those  ancestors  escaped, 
together  with  such  animals  as  they  had  secured  with 
them  in  the  vessel  which,  bore  them  in  safety  until  the 
waters  subsided.  But  this  tradition  is  a  faithful  echo  of 
the  history  Moses  has  given  us  of  Noah's  flood,  in  Gen. 


*  Dr.  Redford  thus  expresses  himself  on  these  traditions  : — 
"  Traditions  of  a  general  deluge  have  been  found  among  all  nations  of 
the  ancient  world,  and  disseminated  among  modern  nations  in  the  most 
distant  and  opposite  parts  of  the  earth,  and  in  all  their  different  degrees 
of  civilization.  Wherever  there  is  any  attempt  to  account  for  the  ex- 
istence of  the  present  population,  it  begins  with  the  preservation  of  one 
pair  of  human  beings,  or  a  single  family,  by  some  floating  vessel.  This 
is  usually  connected  with  a  previously  existing  race,— with  the  anger  of 


328  THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

But,  in  addition  to  the  corroboration  of  the  Mosaic 
history,  found  in  these  wide-spread  traditions  of  a  mighty 
deluge,  preserved  among  nearly  all  nations,  it  was  long 
thought  that  the  appearances  left  on  the  surface  of  the  earth 
itself  yielded  evidence  char  and  concliisive^  of  the  truth  oftlie 
Mosaic  account  of  the  flood. 

Even  among  the  ancients,  several  of  the  philosophers, 
particularly  Strabo,  had  noticed  ancient  shells,  and  other 
fossils,  in  elevated  positions ;  and  had  suggested  the  idea 
of  successive  upheavals  and  depressions  of  the  earth's 
surface,  by  earthquakes,  &c.  In  after  ages  these  topics 
seem  to  have  been  overlooked  and  forgotten. 

About  the  period  of  the  Eeformation,  and  for  some 
time  thereafter,  other  branches  of  knowledge  absorbed 
the  attention  of  scholars.     Leibnitz,  a  man  of  universal 

the  Supreme  Being  against  their  sins,— and  with  the  desolation  of  the 
earth  and  the  race  of  men  by  a  general  inundation. 

"  There  are  no  conflicting  traditions.  The  harmony  among  all  nations 
is  such  as  could  have  arisen  only  from  the  fact  itself.  We  find  Chal- 
dasans,  Phoenicians,  Assyrians,  Persians,  Chinese,  Hindoos,  Mexicans,  Pe- 
ruvians, North  Americans,  islanders  of  Oceanica,  all  preserving  in  their 
mythologies  or  their  histories,  the  principal  facts  recorded  by  Moses. 
They  all  embody  but  one  story."    (Holy  Scrip,  Verified,  pp.  112,  113.) 

Baron  Cuvier  thus  reasons : — "  Is  it  possible  that  mere  accident  should 
afford  so  striking  a  result,  as  to  unite  the  traditional  origia  of  the  As- 
syrian, Indian,  and  Chinese  monarchies  to  the  same  epocha  of  about 
4,000  years  from  the  present  timel  Could  the  ideas  of  nations,  who 
possessed  almost  no  natural  affinities,  whose  language,  religion,  and  laws 
had  nothing  in  common — could  they  conspire  to  one  point,  did  not  truth 
bring  them  together  ?"    (Id.  113.) 

And  yet  Bolingbroke  has  had  the  hardihood  to  assert  that  the  tradi- 
tion of  Noah's  Deluge  is  vouchsafed  by  no  other  authority  than  that  of 
Moses,  and  that  the  memory  of  that  catastrophe  was  known  only  to  one 
people,  and  preserved  in  one  corner  of  the  earth.  (See  his  Philosophical 
Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  224.    See  also  Sumner's  Records  of  Creation,  p.  ^1.) 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  329 

genius,  a  contemporary  and  a  rival  of  the  immortal  New- 
ton, seemed  intuitively  to  catch  a  glimpse  at  the  truth 
on  this  subject ;  and  he  actually  indicated  the  line  of 
research,  which  has  since  led  to  the  wonderful  results 
embraced  in  modern  geological  science. 

The  most  cursory  examination  of  the  earth's  surface, 
shows  boneS;  shells,  and  other  remains  of  animals  and 
plants  both,  presenting  themselves  in  every  possible  va- 
riety of  location— in  the  deep  valley,  and  on  the  high 
hill.  For  a  long  time  these  were  all  ascribed  directly  to 
the  deluge  of  Noah  ;  and  the  earth  itself  was  thus  sup- 
posed to  present,  everywhere,  upon  its  very  surface,  evi- 
dence of  that  great  scriptural  cataclysm,  corroborative  of 
the  text  of  Genesis. 

A  little  attentive  examination,  however,  soon  showed 
that  these  remains  were  deposited  in  regular  successive 
beds,  or  strata,  one  above  the  other.  About  a  century 
and  a  half  ago,  Dr.  J.  Woodward,  of  the  Cambridge 
University,  England,  suggested  the  theory,  (already  no- 
ticed in  the  preceding  Lecture  on  Creation  in  Six  Days,) 
viz.,  that  all  the  rocks  and  contained  minerals,  were  de- 
posited by  the  waters  of  Noah's  deluge,  as  a  common 
solvent,  and  in  the  order  of  their  specific  gravity.*  (Es- 
say towards  a  Nat.  Hist,  of  the  Earth,  1695.) 

But  long-continued  research,  conducted  in  widely  sep- 
arated localities,  showed,  at  length,  that  such  a  cause  was 
inadequate  to  explain  all  the  conditions  under  which 
these  remains  and  rocks  occur.  For  instance :  though 
the  deluge  might  have  strewn  them  over  the  surface,  it 

*  This  is,  substantially,  the  theory  advocated  in  the  recent  work  of 
Dr.  Lord,  entitled,  "  Epoch  of  Creation"  chap,  ix.  p.  228,  &c. 


830  THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

could  not  have  buried  them  in  the  strata  of  mountains, 
or  entombed  them  deep  in  the  earth  itself. 

Again,  it  was  observed  that  marine  shells  were  asso- 
ciated in  one  spot,  while  the  fresh-water  kinds  were  col- 
lected in  another ;  and  that  similar  genera  and  species 
were  in  like  manner  separated  and  arranged — although 
it  is  obvious  that  the  flood  here  contemplated  must  have 
heaped  all  kinds  promiscuously  together. 

And  when,  at  length,  more  extensive  observation 
showed  that  the  same  locality  exhibited  alternations  of  marine 
and  fresh-water  deposits — in  other  terms,  that  the  same 
locality  had  evidently  been  the  site  of  sea  and  land,  alter- 
nately, over  and  over  again,  it  was  felt  and  admitted, 
that  no  one  single  event  was  adequate  to  produce  such 
varied  effects;  and  hence  arose  those  more  extended 
views  of  the  operations  of  nature  which  constitute  the 
principles  of  geology,  at  the  present  day.  (See  Kichard- 
son's  Geology,  pp.  80,  81.) 

The  several  fossiliferous  rocks,  no  less  than  the  deeper 
primitive,  are,  therefore,  now,  most  generally  assigned  to 
ages  long  anterior  to  Noah's  deluge ;  and  anterior  even, 
to  the  renovation  of  the  earth  from  chaos,  for  its  recep- 
tion of  man.  Still,  all  this  notwithstanding,  the  idea  pre- 
vailed in  the  minds  of  many,  that  the  rising,  the  preva- 
lence, and  especially  the  subsidence  of  so  great  an  inun- 
dation of  waters  as  the  deluge  of  Noah,  could  not  be  (as 
Sir  C.  Lyell  contends  that  it  was,  comparatively,)  a  tran- 
quil event;  even  though  it  might  not  tear  up  all  the  soil, 
nor  utterly  destroy  all  vegetation ;  as  may  be  inferred 
from  the  return  of  the  dove  to  Noah,  with  an  olive-leaf, 
so  soon  after  the  deluge  had  subsided.  The  olive-tree 
whence  that  leaf  was  plucked,  must  certainly,  it  would 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  331 

thus  seem,  have  remained  rooted,  and  living,  during  the 
entire  period  of  the  inundation.  But,  though  here  and 
there  a  detached  spot  might  have  been  but  little  altered 
by  the  flood,  it  was  still  believed,  that,  during  both  the 
increase  and  the  subsidence  of  the  deluge,  a  considerable 
action,  from  the  rushing  of  the  water  among  various 
obstacles,  would  be  inevitable.  Ancient  lakes  and  beds 
of  rivers  would  be  filled  up,  and  new  ones  scooped  out. 
Deep  gorges  would  be  worn  among  mountain  ranges ; 
extensive  deposits  of  sand  and  gravel,  and  fragments  of 
rock,  would  be  left  in  various  positions ;  and  in  some 
places,  where  large  bodies  of  water  had  rolled  off  in  long 
and  powerful  currents,  detached  fragments  of  mountain 
cliffs,  or  rocky  boulders  might  be  looked  for,  left  in 
masses,  or  left  separately,  at  intervals,  along  the  course 
taken  by  those  mighty  streams. 

All  this  seems  rational  enough.  When,  then,  careful 
examination  over  extensive  districts  in  Europe,  in  some 
parts  of  Asia,  and  even  in  North  America,  discovered 
such  masses — of  sand  in  some  places,  of  gravel  in  others, 
and  of  both  combined  in  other  places :  when,  further, 
large  blocks  of  rock,  or  boulders,  were  found  lying  in 
such  circumstances,  as  clearly  implied  their  having  been 
brought  together  from  a  great  distance,  by  some  vast  in- 
undation, or  current  of  water  ;  it  was  supposed,  that  thus, 
over  a  very  extensive  portion  of  the  earth's  surface,  this 
drifts  as  it  was  called,  or  diluvium,  furnished  demonstrable 
proof  of  the  action  of  Noah's  deluge,  vastly  extensive, 
and  at  a  comparatively  recent  date ;  much  later,  at  least, 
than  the  latest  of  all  the  strata  of  fossil-bearing  rock, 
cropping  out  from  beneath  the  earth's  surface. 

It  was  under  the  influence  of  these  facts,  then  but 


332  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

newly  discovered,  that  the  great  Cuvier  wrote  that  pas- 
sage, so  often  quoted,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  traces 
left  by  the  action  of  Noah's  deluge,  as  visible  now  on  the 
earth's  surface;  "  If  there  he  a  fact  well  ascertained  in  geol- 
ogy,  it  is  this,  that  the  surface  of  our  globe  has  suffered  a 
great  and  sudden  revolution^  the  period  of  which  cannot  he 
dated  further  hack  than  5  or  6,000  years^  And  he  adds, 
"It  is  from  the  epoch  of  that  revolution,  that  the  small 
number  of  individuals  which  it  spared,  have  spread  them- 
selves and  multiplied  over  the  newly  dried  ground ;  and 
consequently,  it  is  from  that  epoch  alone,  that  human 
societies  have  resumed  their  progressive  improvements." 
(Discours  sur  les  Revolutions  de  la  surface  du  Globe,  &c. 
3d  edit.  Paris,  1836,  p.  133.) 

Later  still,  speaking  of  the  mud,  gravel,  and  bones  of 
the  Kirkdale  caves,  Cuvier  says:  "Most  carefully  de- 
scribed by  Professor  Buckland,  under  the  name  of  dilu- 
vium^  and  exceedingly  different  from  those  other  beds  of 
similarly  rolled  materials,  which  are  now  constantly  de- 
posited by  torrents  and  rivers,  and  containing  only  bones 
of  animals  existing  in  the  country,  and  to  which  Mr.  B. 
gives  the  name  alluvion^  they  now  form,  in  the  eyes  of 
all  geologists,  the  fullest  proof  to  the  senses,  of  that  im- 
mense inundation,  (viz.  Noah's  deluge,)  which  came  last 
in  the  catastrophes  of  our  globe.     (Discours,  &;c.  p.  141.) 

In  his  work  entitled  Reliquiae  Diluvianae,  published  in 
1823,  and  which  contains  his  observations  on  the  drift^ 
Dr.  Buckland  thus  expressed  himself: — ^^  An  agent  thus 
gigantic  appears  to  have  operated  universally  on  the  surface 
of  our  planet  at  the  period  of  the  deluge.  The  spaces  then,  laid 
hare  by  the  sweepi7ig  away  of  the  solid  materials  that  had  be- 
fore filled  themy  are  called  valleys  of  denudation^  and  the  ef- 


THE   DELUGE    UNIVERSAL.  833 

feds  we  see 'produced  hy  water ^  in  the  minor  cases  I  have  just 
mentioned^  hy  presenting  us  an  example^  within  tangible  lim- 
its^ prepare  us  to  comprehend  the  mighty  and  stupendous 
magnitude  of  those  forces^  hy  which  whole  strata  were  swept 
away^  and  valleys  laid  open,  and  gorges  excavated  in  the  more 
solid  portion  of  the  substance  of  the  earthy  bearing  the  same 
proportion  to  the  overwhelming  ocean  by  which  they  were  pro- 
duced^ that  modern  ravines  on  the  sides  of  mountains  bear 
to  the  torrents  which^  since  the  retreat  of  the  deluge^  have  cre- 
ated^ and  continue  to  enlarge  themP  (Keliq.  Diluv.  p.  237, 
1828.) 

The  facts  presented  in  these  passages  are  striking,  and 
the  reasoning  upon  those  facts  is  forcible.  And  yet,  since 
the  publication  of  the  work  containing  these  passages,  a 
still  more  extended  examination  of  these  drifts,  in  differ- 
ent countries,  has  brought  to  light  new  and  important 
facts  which  have  altered  entirely  the  opinions  of  geolo- 
gists, and  of  Dr.  Buckland  himself,  as  to  the  age  and  the 
origin  of  these  drift  deposits. 

The  views  expressed  in  the  preceding  quotations,  were, 
until  recently,  my  own.  But  the  force  of  the  evidence 
adduced,  compels  me  to  abandon  this  theory  so  plausible 
and  so  pleasing ;  and  in  thus  yielding  to  the  power  of 
clear  evidence,  as  Buckland,  Sedgwick,  Conybeare,  Chal- 
mers, and  Pye  Smith,  have  done  before  me,  I  see  no  cause 
to  blush.  Sufficient  evidence  once  seen  must  bring  con- 
viction :  and  to  avow  conviction,  candor  is  always  ready. 

The  general  term  diluvium^  now  abandoned,  was 
used  by  Buckland  to  describe  superficial  accumulations, 
whether  of  soil,  sand,  gravel,  or  loose  aggregations  of 
larger  blocks,  which  are  found  to  prevail  over  large 
tracts  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  are  manifestly  superin- 


334  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

duced  over  the  deposits  of  different  ages,  with  whicli 
they  have  no  connection. 

An  examination  of  the  contents  of  this  drift  soon 
showed  the  diversified  nature  of  the  fragments  of  which 
it  is  composed,  in  different  localities.  Investigations 
were  made  by  comparing  the  transported  fragments  with 
the  nearest  rocks  from  which  they  could  have  been  de- 
rived. Hence  was  inferred  the  direction  of  the  current 
which  transported  them,  and  the  degree  of  force  neces- 
sary for  such  transport,  according  to  their  size  and  na- 
ture, and  the  character  of  the  intervening  ground. 

Hence  the  conclusion  became  inevitable,  that  many 
such  currents,  in  different  directions,  and  acting  with  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  force,  must  have  occurred  to  produce 
the  observed  results. 

It  was  very  soon  found  also  from  indications  not  to  be 
mistaken,  that  these  instances  of  diluvial  action,  were  of 
very  different  ages  ;  and  none  of  more  than  local  extent ; 
although  some  must  have  acted  over  considerable  tracts 
of  country.  In  some  instances,  the  most  palpable  evi- 
dence of  this  has  been  furnished,  in  one  stratum  crossing, 
and  overlying  another.  Thus,  Professor  Hitchcock,  speak- 
ing of  the  abundant  drift  of  Massachusetts,  declares,  "  A 
transient  deluge,  like  that  described  in  Scripture,  could 
not  have  accumulated  it.  It  has  obviously  been  the  re- 
sult of  different  agencies,  and  of  different  epochs :  the  re- 
sult of  causes,  sometimes  operating  feebly  and  slowly, 
and  at  other  times,  violently  and  powerfully.  But  the 
conclusion  to  which  I  have  been  irresistibly  forced,  by 
an  examination  of  this  stratum  in  Massachusetts,  is,  that 
all  the  diluvium  which  had  been  previously  accumulated 
by  various  agencies,  has  been  modified  by  a  powerful 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  835 

deluge,  sweeping  from  the  north,  and  north-west,  over 
every  part  of  the  state,  not  excepting  its  highest  moun- 
tains :  and  since  that  deluge,  none  but  alluvial  agencies 
have  been  operating  to  change  the  surface."  (Hitch- 
cock's Geology  of  Massachusetts,  1835,  p.  148.) 

One  might  almost  imagine  that  in  the  diluvium  left  by 
this  powerful  north-west  deluge  sweeping  over  Massachu- 
setts, we  have  at  length  found  evidence  of  the  action  of 
Noah's  flood. 

But,  no !  The  one  unanswerable  argument  against 
this  conclusion  is,  that  neither  in  this  north-westerly 
diluvium  of  Massachusetts,  nor  in  any  other  diluvium 
hitherto  examined,  have  any  traces  been  found  of  man^  or 
of  his  works. 

In  other  instances,  (perhaps  in  the  greater  number,) 
there  is  equal  evidence  of  the  operation  having  gone  on 
at  the  bottom  of  deep  water,  as  it  does  at  present,  by 
currents,  eddies,  tides,  &c. 

Again,  in  some  instances,  masses  of  what  had  once 
formed  a  diluvium,  have  themselves  been  cleared  off  by 
some  new  current,  and  heaped  up,  leaving  the  substratum 
bare.  In  a  word,  with  reference  to  cases  of  this  kind,  the 
most  recent  researches  simply  point  to  a  continuation  of 
the  same  great  series  of  long-sustained  natural  action,  in 
the  deposition  of  detritus,  and  the  gradual  elevation  of 
coasts,  covered  with  the  ordinary  accumulations  of  mud, 
sand,  and  shingle,  which  have  been  referred  to  as  the 
analogous  causes  of  the  earlier  formations.  (See  Kitto's 
Bib.  Cycl.,  and  Dr.  J.  P.  Smith,  pp.  89-91.) 

Moreover,  (remarks  Dr.  Pye  Smith,)  in  many  coun- 
tries drifts  have  been  formed,  showing  where  large  bodies 
of  water  have  moved  with  great  force,  in  contrary  direc- 


336  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

tions.  In  other  places,  vast  rocks,  or  boulders,  have,  as 
it  is  supposed,  been  drifted  in  icebergs,  and  dropped 
where  they  now  lie.  Others  are  attributed  to  the  action 
of  glaciers.  In  some  instances,  since  the  time  when 
boulders  were  transported  from  the  parent  mountain,  up- 
heavals or  subsidences  have  taken  place.  For  instance : 
on  the  sides  of  the  Jura  Mountains,  lying  on  the  borders 
of  France  and  Switzerland,  boulders  are  now  lying  which 
must  have  been  brought  thither  from  the  Alps.  But, 
directly  in  the  track  which  alone  they  could  have  taken, 
now  lies  Lake  Geneva.  Had  that  lake  existed  when  those 
boulders  were  moving,  they  must  have  sunk  and  remain- 
ed in  the  bed  of  the  lake.  Lake  Geneva  must  then,  itself, 
have  been  formed  since  the  time  when  those  boulders 
were  transported. 

But  the  vast  Alps  themselves  are,  comparatively,  a 
modern  formation.  Lofty  and  grand  though  now  they 
tower  amid  eternal  snows,  many  of  the  deposits  and 
the  chalk-cliffs  of  Britain  had  long  been  upheaved  at  a 
time  when,  where  the  Alps  with  their  glittering  snow- 
capped summits  now  stand,  was  spread  only  a  champaign 
country,  or  one  vast  morass.  (See  Dr.  J.  P.  Smith, 
p.  94.) 

Little,  then,  as  we  might  have  expected  such  a  result, 
it  now  appears  that  the  so-called  diluvium  drift,  cannot 
be  attributed  to  Noah's  deluge. 

Innumerable  traces  may  be  found  of  changes  effected, 
and  of  deposits  made,  on  the  earth's  surface ;  of  succes- 
sive upheavals  and  depressions  in  the  same  locality; 
sometimes  sinking  beneath  the  waters  of  the  sea,  then 
again  emerging;  then  serving  as  the  bed  of  a  fresh- water 
lake,  &c.  &;c. ;  and  all,  as  it  would  seem,  before  the  time 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  837 

of  Noah's  deluge.  Changes  have  also  been  effected,  and 
deposits  have  been  made,  since  that  period ;  and  such 
deposits  are  now  being  made,  as  in  river  deltas,  &c.  The 
temple  of  Jupiter  Serapis,  at  Puzzuoli,  near  Naples,  di- 
rectly on  the  shores  of  that  beautiful  bay,  has  twice  sunk 
and  twice  risen,  nearly  twenty  feet  each  time,  since  the 
Christian  era,  and  it  is  again  slowly  sinking,  as  I  myself 
can  testify,  (and  as  I  did  testify  to  Sir  C.  Lyell,  in  Nov., 
1846 :  see  his  Princ.  Geol.,  London,  1850,  p.  497,)  while 
the  whole  coast  of  Sweden  is  at  this  moment,  and  has 
long  been  gradually  rising.  (See  Lyell,  Id.  pp.  497,  502. 
See  also  Richardson,  pp.  422,  423.) 

Still,  amid  all  these  evidences  of  change — past,  and  now 
in  progress,  no  marks  of  change,  no  deposit  of  drift,  or  of 
fossils,  can  be  pointed  out,  of  which  we  can  say  with  ab- 
solute certainty,  ^'' these  are  the  effects  of  Nbah^s  deluge,  these 
are  the  proofs  of  its  occurrence  P 

How  is  this  ?  The  answer  I  shall  attempt,  in  my  next 
Lecture. 

To  adopt,  then,  the  language  of  Dr.  Buckland,  when 
frankl}'^  avowing  his  abandonment  of  the  diluvian  theory : 
"  Though  we  have  not  yet  found  the  certain  traces  of  any 
great  diluvian  catastrophe,  which  we  can  affirm  to  be 
within  the  human  period,  we  have  at  least  shown,  that 
paroxysms  of  internal  energy,  accompanied  by  the  eleva- 
tion of  mountain  chains,  and  followed  by  mighty  waters 
desolating  whole  regions  of  the  earth,  were  a  part  of  the 
mechanism  of  nature.  Now  what  has  happened  again 
and  again,  from  the  most  ancient,  up  to  the  most  modern 
periods  in  the  natural  history  of  the  earth,  may  have 
happened  once,  during  the  few  thousand  years  that  man 
has  been  living  on  its  surface.     We  have,  therefore,  taken 

15 


338  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

away  all  anterior  improbability,  from  the  fact  of  a  deluge, 
such,  e.  g.  as  that  of  Noah."  (See  Proceedings  of  the 
Brit.  Geol.  Soc.  for  1831,  pp.  312-314.) 

Without  endorsing  unconditionally  every  sentiment 
contained  therein,  I  will  conclude  this  Lecture,  with  the 
words  of  an  eminent  and  orthodox  Scotch  divine,  (Rev. 
Dr.  Fleming.)  "There  is  reason  to  believe,  from  the 
writings  of  Moses,  that  the  ark  had  not  drifted  far  from 
the  spot  where  it  was  lifted  up,  and  that  it  grounded  at 
no  great  distance  from  the  same  spot.  I  have  formed 
my  notions  of  the  Noachian  deluge,  not  from  Ovid,  but 
from  the  Bible.  There,  the  simple  narrative  of  Moses 
permits  me  to  believe,  that  the  waters  rose  upon  the 
earth,  by  degrees :  that  means  were  adopted  by  the  author 
of  the  calamity,  to  preserve  pairs  of  the  land  animals: 
that  the  flood  exhibited  no  violent  impetuosity,  displacing 
neither  the  soil,  nor  the  vegetable  tribes  which  it  support- 
ed, nor  rendering  the  ground  unfit  for  the  cultivation  of 
the  vine.  With  this  description  in  my  mind,  I  am  not 
prepared  to  witness  in  nature^  B,ny  remaining  marks  of 
the  catastrophe :  and  I  find  my  respect  for  the  authority 
of  revelation  heightened,  when  I  see,  on  the  present  sur- 
face, no  memorials  of  the  event."  (Jameson's  Philos.  Jour- 
nal.   See  also  Dr.  J.  P.  Smith,  p.  81. 


LECTUEE  X. 

THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL. 

PART  II. 

Gen.  vii.  23. — "  And  every  living  substance  was  destroyed  which  was 
upon  the  face  of  the  ground,  both  man  and  cattle,  and  the  creeping 
things,  and  the  fowl  of  the  heavens ;  and  they  were  destroyed  from 
the  earth ;  and  Noah  only  remained  alive,  and  they  that  were  with 
him  in  the  ark." 

The  very  terms  of  tliis  record  of  the  deluge  in  the 
days  of  Noah,  seem  then,  to  convey  the  idea  of  univer- 
sality over  the  entire  surface  of  the  whole  globe.  The 
deluge  covered  the  highest  mountains  under  the  whole 
heavens,  and  every  living  creature,  man  and  beast,  that 
were  exposed  to  it,  perished.  The  only  survivors  were 
Noah,  and  those  sheltered  with  him  in  the  ark.  As 
might  be  expected,  traditions  of  a  universal  deluge,  from 
which  one  family  only  escaped,  with  certain  animals 
sheltered  with  them  in  a  floating  vessel,  are  found  among 
all  nations,  on  every  continent  and  in  almost  every  island 
on  the  globe,  nations  of  all  languages  and  of  every  grade 
of  civilization :  traditions  wonderfully  agreeing  as  to  all 
the  main  facts  in  the  case,  and  strongly  corroborating  the 
Mosaic  narrative  of  a  universal  deluge,  in  which  every 
human  being  on  the  face  of  the  earth  perished,  excepting 


340  THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL. 

only  one  family,  whose  posterity  have  since  spread  over 
the  whole  globe. 

But,  though  evidence  abundant  is  presented  on  the 
earth's  surface  now,  of  vast  bodies  of  water  having  swept 
over  the  surface  of  the  earth,  at  different  times  and  in 
different  directions,  nowhere  can  we  discover  deposits 
or  drifts,  or  marks  which  we  can  with  certainty  assign  to 
the  action  of  Noah's  deluge.  Nor  in  the  accumulations 
of  these  ancient  drifls,  nor  in  any  deposits  older  than 
those  beds  of  alluvion  which  are  even  now  forming, 
have  any  remains  of  man,  or  of  his  works  been  found, 
such  as  must  have  been  covered  up  in  deposits  lefl  by 
Noah's  flood,  in  all  countries  then  inhabited  by  man. 

This  absence  of  human  remains  in  all  the  deposits 
laid  open  to  our  research,  I  propose  to  account  for  in 
this  Lecture. 

The  result  of  these  geological  researches  renders  one 
thing  very  plain,  viz.,  that  if  we  can  find  no  undeniable 
marks  of  the  action  of  the  deluge  of  Noah  upon  the 
earth,  yet  all  improbability  that  may  have  been  supposed 
to  attach  to  the  idea  of  such  a  deluge,  at  that  epoch,  is  effec- 
tually removed,  so  that  we  are  prepared  to  receive  the 
evidence  of  its  occurrence,  whenever  that  evidence  shall 
be  presented  to  us,  let  it  spring  from  what  source  it  may. 

The  narrative  found  in  Genesis  teaches,  as  believers  in 
revelation  have  generally  thought,  and  as  I  cannot  but 
think,  that  the  deluge  in  the  time  of  Noah  was  literally 
universal,  covering  the  whole  earth,  and  destroying  all 
living  creatures,  man  and  beast,  excepting  only  those 
sheltered  in  the  ark. 

Against  the  universality  of  the  deluge,  several  grave 
objections  are  urged. 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  8*1 

As,  1st.  On  scientific  grounds^  objections  are  brought. 
The  quantity  of  water  required  to  effect  such  a  universal 
deluge  would  have  been  such,  as  that  there  is  no  account- 
ing for  the  production  of  so  large  a  body  of  water,  or  for 
the  disposal  of  it  afterwards,  without  a  series  of  miracles 
utterly  incredible,  and  not  even  hinted  at  in  the  Bible. 
Gen.  vii.  19,  20,  "  The  waters  prevailed  exceedingly  on  the 
earthj  and  all  the  high  hills  that  luere  under  the  ivhole  heaven 
were  covered ;  fifteen  cubits  upwards  did  the  waters  'prevail^ 
and  the  mountains  were  covered.^' 

Now,  as  there  are  mountains  rising  to  the  height  of 
five  miles  above  the  sea-level,  in  order  to  produce  a 
deluge  such  as  the  literal  understanding  of  this  passage 
implies,  the  body  of  water  on  the  surface  of  the  globe 
must  have  been  so  increased,  as  to  produce  a  universal 
ocean  over  the  whole  globe,  to  the  depth  of  five  miles  at 
least,  above  and  over  the  present  ocean.  Two  means  of 
bringing  the  waters  over  the  land  are  mentioned  by 
Moses,  viz.,  a  heavy  rain  for  forty  days  and  forty  nights, 
and  the   ''''breaking  up  of  the  fountains  of  the  great  deepP 

The  rain  that  ordinarily  falls,  is,  we  know,  first  drawn 
by  evaporation,  from  the  sea,  and  other  bodies  of  water 
on  the  surface  of  the  earth  ;  it  is  held  in  suspense  by  the 
atmosphere,  again  falling  to  the  earth  when  condensed.* 

Now  the  height  of  the  atmosphere  so  far  as  it  has 
density  sufficient  to  sustain  vapor,  is  not  very  great :  its 
capacity  to  contain,  or  suspend  vapor,  is  limited ;  and 
although  heavy  rains  of  even  a  few  hours'  continuance 
may  speedily  inundate  a  whole  province,  or  a  country, 

*  "  The  windows  of  heaven  were  opejied,"  Gen,  vii.  11,  seems  to  be  but 
another  mode  of  expressing  the  idea  of  heavy  rains  falling  in  unusual 
quantities,  and  for  a  period  of  unprecedented  duration. 


842  THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

especially  a  country  abounding  in  valleys  and  plains 
lying  amongst,  or  surrounded  by,  or  bordering  upon 
hills,  and  mountain  ranges;  yet  still,  were  the  entire 
atmosphere  surcharged  with  vapor  to  its  utmost  capa- 
city, and  then  caused  to  discharge  it  at  once  on  the  earth, 
it  could  not  possibly  cover  the  surface  of  the  entire  globe, 
more  than  to  the  depth  of  a  few  inches,  which,  towards 
the  production  of  a  deluge  five  miles  deep,  is  as  nothing. 

Besides,  inasmuch  as  all  rain  is  drawn  from  the  water 
of  the  sea,  &c.,  a  rain  that  should  fall  for  days,  or  for 
months  continuously,  would  only  amount  to  a  return  to 
the  earth,  in  the  form  of  rain,  of  the  very  water  as  con- 
stantly rising  from  it  by  evaporation.  Such  continuous 
rains  might  inundate  and  desolate  whole  provinces,  and 
even  empires,  but  they  would  not  increase  by  one  drop, 
the  sum  total  of  water  actually  existing  in  the  ocean, 
lakes,  &c.,  on  the  earth  at  the  moment  when  these  rains 
commenced. 

Nor  could  the  breaking  up  of  the  fountains  of  the  great 
deep,  do  very  much  towards  increasing  the  quantity  of 
water  on  the  surface  of  the  globe :  unless  we  admit  the 
idea  once  entertained,  that  large  bodies  of  water  are 
lodged  in  cavities  in  the  earth,  and  that  the  breaking  up 
of  ike  fountains  of  Oie  great  deep^  implies  that  vent  was  given 
to  these  subterranean  waters,  so  that  they  rushed  forth, 
and  overspread  the  land.  This  may  be  so,  nor  does  this 
idea,  to  me,  at  least,  seem  either  absurd,  or  improbable. 
But  still,  we  know  enough  of  the  structure  of  this  earth 
to  satisfy  us,  that  no  subterranean  oceans  of  water  now 
exist  in  the  interior  of  the  earth,  equal  to  an  emergency 
such  as  that  of  inundating  the  entire  surface  of  the  globe 
to  a  depth  of  five  miles  above  the  present  level  of  the  sea. 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  MB 

The  only  hypothesis  left  us  is,  that  the  vast  amount  of 
water  necessary  to  flood  the  globe,  and  cover  its  highest 
mountains  to  a  depth  of  fifteen  cubits,  was  miraculously 
created  by  God,  for  the  occasion,  and  then,  when  the 
grand  purpose  of  its  introduction  upon  the  earth  was  ac- 
complished, it  was  as  miraculously  annihilated,  or  re- 
moved ! 

But,  we  are  told,  that  by  this  hypothesis,  we  are  call- 
ing in  the  aid  of  miracle  after  miracle,  when  the  Bible 
attributes  the  whole  to  ordinary,  natural  causes :  for  the 
expression,  "  the  loindows  of  heaven  were  opened"  merely 
denotes  the  long-continued  fall  of  heavy  rain,  (Gen.  vii. 
11 :)  and  the  declaration,  "  all  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep 
were  hroken  up^"*  simply  teaches,  that  an  irruption  of  the 
luaters  of  the  sea  upon  the  dry  land  then  took  place.  But 
we  know  with  certainty,  that  neither  of  these  events,  nor 
yet  both  combined,  could  do  more  than  produce  a  local 
flood — a  partial  inundation  :  because  they  could  not  possi- 
bly increase  to  any  great  extent,  the  sum  total  of  water 
on  the  globe.  But  without  an  increase  of  water  to  the 
amount  of  seven  or  eight  times  the  quantity  of  all  the 
water  contained  in  all  the  seas  and  oceans  now  on  the 
globe,  the  earth  could  not  have  been  covered  with  water 
that  should  rise  several  feet  higher  than  the  highest 
mountains,  as  Moses  positively  avers  that  the  waters  of 
Noah's  deluge  did ! 

Other  difficulties  still  attend  this  idea  of  a  universal  deluge : 
for  it  is  argued  that  such  an  accumulation  of  water  on  the 
earth's  surface,  covering  it  to  the  depth  of  five  miles  above 
the  present  sea-level,  would  very  considerably  increase 
the  diameter  of  the  earth,  vastly  augment  its  bulk,  its 
weight,  and  must,  therefore,  inevitably  alter  the  path  of 


344  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

its  orbit,  and  produce  a  disturbing  effect  throughout  the 
whole  solar  system:  naj,  its  disturbing  influence  would 
be  certainly  felt  through  the  whole  extent  of  the  material 
universe,  and,  very  possibly,  to  the  detriment,  if  not  the 
destruction,  of  many  myriads  of  sentient  beings,  in  other 
and  far  distant  worlds. 

A  deluge  of  this  character,  it  has  been  said,  *'  would 
require  a  series  of  stupendous  and  immensely  multiplied 
miracles,  in  comparison  with  which,  the  great  decisive 
miracle  of  Christianity,  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ, 
sinks  as  insignificant."  (Dr.  J.  Pye  Smith,  Scripture 
and  Geology,  pp.  113,  116.) 

True,  these  are  formidable  objections!  But  if  the 
Mosaic  narrative  required  us  to  admit  such  vast  increase 
of  waters,  in  order  to  account  for  the  universality  of  the 
deluge,  I  would  still  bow  to  the  authority,  and  implicitly 
believe  in  the  truth  of  this  divinely  inspired  document, 
notwithstanding  all  these  difficulties ;  and  that  too,  in 
view  of  other,  and  scarcely  less  formidable  difficulties  yet 
to  be  noticed.  For,  if  I  read,  in  a  document  clearly 
proved  to  be  inspired  of  God,  as  the  books  of  Moses  are, 
that  the  deluge  was  universal^  I  know  assuredly  that  God's 
power  was  equal  to  the  emergency.  He  who  made  all 
things,  and  impressed  upon  them  the  laws  of  their  exist- 
ence, and  of  their  mutual  influence  one  upon  another, 
can  suspend,  or  alter,  or  modify  these  laws,  at  his  pleas- 
ure, just  as  He  sees  the  emergency  of  the  case  may  re- 
quire! How,  indeed,  can  we  tell,  but  that  occasional 
apparent  exceptions^  or  seeming  deviations^  may  be  involved 
in  the  very  nature  of  those  laws  ?  If  the  deluge  which, 
for  the  wickedness  of  mankind,  God  had  sworn  to  bring 
on  this  earth,  required  the  creation  of  oceans  of  water, 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  345 

He  could  create  it,  and  cause  it  to  spread  just  where  He 
chose;*  His  hand  could  guide  the  earth  reeling  under 
the  superadded  weight,  and  so  guide  it  as  to  neutralize 
its  otherwise  disturbing  power  on  the  other  orbs  and 
other  systems  in  the  universe,  over  which  man's  apostasy 
was  not  permitted  to  diffuse  evil. 

I  know  full  well  that  this  idea  of  miracle  upon  mir- 
acle will  be  sneered  at  by  the  so-called  philosopher,  and 
deprecated  by  some  good  men,  and  perhaps  even  by  able 
theologians  too.  But,  if  the  alternative  be,  admit  the 
supposition  of  a  series  of  even  unprecedented  miracles, 
or  suffer  the  Mosaic  record  to  be  brought  into  discredit, 
I,  for  one,  am  for  adhering  to  the  record.  A  preternat- 
ural catastrophe  the  deluge  was — so  Moses  represents  it 
— and  therefore  we  cannot  judge  of  it  by  the  ordinary 
laws  of  nature  merely.  I  would  as  soon  undertake  to 
account  for  the  resurrection  of  the  body  by  the  laws  of 
nature  only,  as  to  account  fully  for  the  flood  in  Noah's 
day,  by  those  laws  exclusively. 

If  revelation  records  the  stupendous  event,  that  record 
is  not  to  be  brought  into  discredit  by  our  inability  to  ex- 
plain the  mode  in  which  the  event  was  accomplished,  or 
to  account  for  all  its  possible  effects. 

But  such  miraculous  increase  of  water  is  not  necessary^  to 

*  God  always  acts  according  to  law.  There  is  a  law  of  miracles,  as 
well  as  common  events  :  even  when  God  introduces  a  miracle,  perhaps  by 
a  counteraction  of  ordinary  laws,  he  may  still  act  by  some  rule  :  so  that, 
were  precisely  the  same  circumstances  to  occur  again,  the  same  miracle 
would  be  repeated.  The  laws  regulating  miracles  and  special  provi- 
dences, are  as  fixed  and  certain  as  those  of  ordinary  events:  and  those 
laws  must  have  formed  a  part  of  the  plan  of  creation  originally  existing 
in  the  divine  mind.  (See  Hitchcock's  Religion  of  Geology,  pp.  358,  359. 
See  also  Babbage,  9th  Bridgewater  Treatise.) 

15* 


846  THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

account  for  a  universal  deluge.  When  "  all  the  fountains 
of  the  great  deep  were  broken  up,^^  (Gen.  vii.  11,)  a  great 
change  on  the  earth's  surface  seems  to  be  intimated. 
The  hidden  waters  accumulated  in  subterranean  caverns 
might  then  have  gushed  forth,  and  whole  continents 
might  then  have  sunk,  and  remained  permanently  sub- 
merged ;  just  as  now  it  occasionally  happens  that  a  tract 
of  land  sinks  down,  and  a  lake  appears  where  before 
smiling  meadows  had  spread.  But,  without  the  suppo- 
sition of  such  ancient  subterranean  oceans  as  intended  by 
the  ^^ fountains  of  the  great  deepj"^  (see  Dr.  J.  P.  Smith,  pp. 
Ill,  112,)  €ie  simultaneous  sinking  of  all  Hie  antediluvian 
continents  beneath  the  surface  of  the  sea^  and  the  upheaval  of 
the  bed  of  the  ancient  ocean,  and  the  continuance  of  that  up- 
heaved ocean-bed,  as  the  present  dry  land  of  the  postdiluvian 
earth,  is  a  supposition  not  improbable  in  itself,  and  it  will 
account  for  all  the  facts  which  Moses  details  as  attendant 
on  Noah's  flood,  covering  the  highest  mountains.  It  will 
also  fully  account  for  the  fact,  that  no  human  relics,  no 
work  of  art  from  the  antediluvian  races  of  man,  have,  as 
yet,  been  brought  to  light.  These  antediluvian  relics  all 
lie,  fathoms  deep,  beneath  the  beds  of  the  present  oceans 
and  seas. 

We  know  that  even  at  this  day,  some  countries  are 
slowly  rising  above  the  sea ;  others  are  as  gradually  sink- 
ing beneath  it.  (Richardson,  p.  422.  Lyell,  p.  502.) 
Lyell  does,  indeed,  maintain  that  the  laws  of  nature  are 
uniform  ;  that  changes  have,  for  innumerable  ages,  been 
going  on  slowly,  as  now  they  do,  and  that  we  must  not 
imagine  the  occurrence  of  any  great  and  sudden  con- 
vulsions to  effect  the  changes  of  which  we  find  evidence. 
(Lyell,  Princ.  Geol.  pp.  63,  64,  175.) 


THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL.  347 

But,  now,  this  theory  of  uniformity  in  the  modes  and 
rates  of  changes,  the  great  English  geologist  pushes  too 
far.  There  is  ample  evidence  to  show,  that  it  is  a  part 
of  the  uniformity  of  nature's  laws,  that  a  rigid  uniformity 
shall  occasionally  be  interrupted  by  sudden  convulsions  !  The 
series  of  geologic  strata  furnish  proof  to  show  that  the 
present  land  has,  at  several  different  periods  in  the  ages 
past,  been  covered  with  water,  as  the  bed  of  an  ocean ; 
then,  upheaved,  it  has  been  dry  land :  then,  perhaps, 
covered  with  fresh  water,  as  the  bed  of  a  lake :  then  left 
dry  again,  &c., — many  times  in  succession.  Sometimes, 
also,  through  these  several  deposits  overlying  one  an- 
other, there  have  been  forced  up,  by  some  deep  subter- 
ranean power,  (perhaps  volcanic  action,)  masses  of  crys- 
talline rock,  formed,  ages  ago,  deep  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth :  and  sometimes,  the  rocks  now  seen  breaking 
through  these  overlying  strata,  were  evidently  forced 
upwards  while  in  a  fluid  state,  from  the  effect  of  intense 
heat,  deep  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 

Every  earthquake,  every  mountain  wave  that  has 
been  rolled  up  from  the  vast  depths  of  ocean,  devastating 
whole  provinces  in  a  few  hours,  (Lyell,  pp.  9,  342,)  every 
volcanic  eruption  and  sudden  upheaval  of  hills,  as,  e.  g. 
of  Monte  Nuovo,  thrown  up  to  the  height  of  five  hun- 
dred feet  in  one  night,  (Sept.  29,  1538,)  a  few  miles  from 
Naples,  show,  that  an  unbroken  uniformity  is  not  the  law 
of  nature^ s  action;  but  that  elevations  and  subsidences  of 
land,  sometimes  extensive  and  sudden,  are  even  now 
taking  place. 

It  is,  therefore,  very  far  from  incredible,  that,  at  the 
time  of  Noah's  flood,  such  subsidence  of  all  the  dry  land, 
and  simultaneous  elevation  of  ocean's  bed,  might  have 


M9  THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL. 

been  effected.  Such  extensive  alterations  in  the  level 
of  continents  and  ocean  beds,  must  necessarily  have  pro- 
duced a  deluge  over  all  earth's  surface,  that  might  have 
lasted  several  months ;  and  it  could  not  fail  to  alter  com- 
pletely the  aspect  of  the  whole  world. 

The  chief,  if  not  the  only  serious  objection  to  this  sup- 
position, arises  from  the  fact  that  it  involves  the  pei'ma- 
nent  submergence  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  and  implies 
that  that  once  favored  spot  now  forms  a  part  of  ocean's 
bed;  whereas,  Moses  so  describes  the  region  where  it 
stood,  as  that  one  can  hardly  avoid  the  conclusion,  that 
Moses  meant  his  readers  to  understand  that  the  locality 
of  Eden  might,  in  his  day  at  least,  (which  was  many  ages 
posterior  to  the  flood,)  have  been  ascertained  without 
much  difficulty.  He  even  mentions  by  name  the  Eu- 
phrates, as  one  of  the  streams  that  watered  Eden. 

Moreover,  if  all  the  antediluvian  land  was  sunk,  and 
remains  sunk,  forming  the  bed  of  the  present  sea,  and  if 
the  land  on  which  Noah  planted  his  foot  when  leaving 
the  ark  was  the  old  ocean's  bed  then  recently  laid  bare 
and  dry,  where  was  found  the  olive-tree  from  which  the 
dove  brought  a  green  leaf  to  the  ark,  (Gen.  viii.  11,)  and 
whence  did  Noah  derive  the  vines  that  he  planted  to 
form  a  vineyard?  '  (Gen.  ix.  20.) 

These  are  difficulties,  I  admit ;  but  they  are  not  so  for- 
midable, as  are  those  which  encumber  even  the  most 
plausible  of  all  other  theories  yet  advanced,  to  account 
for  the  deluge. 

As  to  the  locality  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  the  descrip- 
tion of  it,  as  given  by  Moses,  is  so  general,  and  so  vague, 
that  all  attempts  to  identify  the  spot  have  proved  abor- 
tive.    The  only  fixed  point  in  relation  to  it,  is  the  name 


THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  349 

of  a  river,  Euphrates.  The  other  names  Moses  gives,  and 
the  description  ir  which  those  names  occur,  are  to  this 
day,  inexplicable,  even  by  the  most  learned.  May  we 
not  be  permitted  to  conjecture,  that  ^^the  garden  planted 
by  Jehovah  eastward,  in  Eden,^''  in  which  he  placed  the 
first  human  pair,  and  from  which,  after  the  first  sin,  man 
was  effectually  excluded,  was  a  district  larger  than  has 
generally  been  supposed,  comprising,"  perhaps,  Persia, 
and  a  large  part  of  Western  Asia,  to  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean?  May  we  not  further  suppose  that  this 
entire  region  uninhabited  by  man  sank  last  of  all  beneath 
the  invading  waters,  and  that  this,  the  sole  region  of  all 
antediluvian  countries  that  was  re-elevated,  was  first  left 
dry  before  the  beds  of  antediluvian  oceans  were  lifted  up  ? 
All  other  lands  that  man  had  trodden,  sank,  and  remain 
to  this  day  sunk,  beneath  the  deep  sea.  This  compara- 
tively small  region,  submerged  for  but  a  few  weeks, 
might  have  again  emerged,  with  but  little  alteration  of 
its  natural  scenery.  It  might  still  show  its  ancient 
mountain  peaks,  its  original  river  channels  and  valleys, 
and  its  antediluvian  volcanic  craters,  and  even  cones. 
This  hypothesis,  viz.,  the  subsidence  of  all  lands  then  in- 
habited, and  the  elevation  of  ocean-beds,  fully  accounts 
for  the  absence  from  the  present  surface  of  the  earth,  of 
all  traces  left  by  the  deluge,  and  of  all  the  remains  of  an- 
tediluvian man,  and  his  works. 

This  I  believe  to  be  the  true  explanation  of  the  facts  recorded 
in  GenesiSj  as  to  the  deluge.  The  ancient  lands  gradually, 
but  rapidly  sank,  burying  the  whole  human  race,  with  all 
the  monuments  of  their  industry  and  skill,  deep  under 
the  waves  of  ocean ;  while  the  bed  of  the  antediluvian 
ocean  emerged,  and  became  the  present  dry  land :  possi- 


360  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

blj  also,  the  uninhabited  district  designated,  as  "  a  gar- 
den planted  in  UdeUj "  may  have  again  emerged  also.  Such 
elevation  on  subsidence  of  large  tracts  of  land  we  know  to 
be  usually  attended  by  great  agitation  of  the  elements, 
and  by  copious  rains.  (See  Lyell,  Princ.  Geol.  pp.  9,  342.) 
This  theory  well  agrees  with  all  the  particulars  given  in 
the  Mosaic  record.  *'  The  windows  of  heaven  were  opened, 
and  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  were  broken  up.  The 
waters  prevailed  exceedingly  on  ike  earth,  and  the  mountains 
were  covered  P'  (Gen.  vii.  19.)  Nor  can  I  see,  in  this  rec- 
ord, anything  to  forbid  the  idea,  that  the  mountains  now 
on  the  continents  then  upheaved  are  greatly  higher  than 
any  that  *'  were  under  the  whole  heavens,^'  before  the  flood. 

In  regard  to  the  rapid  appearance  of  vegetation  on  the 
newly  dried  surface  of  earth,  so  long,  and  so  recently  the 
bed  of  ocean,  as  indicated  by  the  olive  Zeq/"  brought  by  the 
dove  to  Noah  while  he  was  yet  shut  up  in  the  ark ;  and 
again,  in  respect  of  the  subsequent  planting  of  a  vineyard 
by  Noah,  a  moment's  reflection  will  furnish  a  very  natural 
solution  of  the  difficulties. 

"We  might,  indeed,  satisfactorily  account  for  this  rapid 
vegetation,  by  a  reference  to  that  law  ordained  by  God, 
on  the  third  day  of  the  creation  in  six  days,  Gen.  i.  11. 
"  God  said.  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass,  the  herb  yielding 
seed  after  his  land,  and  the  tree  yielding  fruit,  whose  seed  is 
in  itself f^  a  law  which  we  know  does  to  this  day  operate 
everywhere  over  the  surface  of  our  globe;  a  law  which 
operates  on  all  newly  formed  lands;  gradually,  and  some- 
times rapidly  covering  with  appropriate  vegetation  such 
districts  as  by  emergence  from  the  sea,  or  by  the  action 
of  volcanic  forces  are  heaved  to  light  and  exposed  to  the 
rays  of  the  sun  and  to  the  action  of  the  elements  :  a  law, 


THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL.  351 

the  operation  of  which  with  unusual  celeritj,  would  be 
necessary  after  the  deluge,  as  truly  as  after  the  third 
day's  creative  work,  in  order  to  furnish  appropriate  food 
to  man,  and  to  the  animals  that  must  issue  from  the  ark, 
soon  after  the  waters  of  the  deluge  should  have  subsided. 
But,  not  to  insist  too  strenuously  on  this  point,  it  is  yet 
quite  natural  to  suppose  that,  as  the  ancient  lands  sank 
beneath  the  waters,  immense  quantities  of  fertile  soil 
would  be  washed  away  by  those  waters,  and  would  be 
held  in  solution  therein;  and  also,  that  seeds  in  great 
variety,  and  in  vast  quantities,  and  fruits  of  all  sorts 
would  be  lifted  up,  and  would  remain  floating  about ;  and 
that,  as  the  new  lands  were  rising,  great  quantities  of  this 
soil  would  be  deposited  thereon,  in  the  form  of  mud  ;  and 
seeds  of  all  sorts,  still  capable  of  germinating,  would  be 
lodged  in  various  localities  on  the  emerging  lands,  many 
of  them  mixed  with  and  covered  up  in  the  mud  so  deposi- 
ted, and  which,  after  a  very  short  time  of  favorable 
weather,  in  that  genial  climate,  would  present,  in  suitable 
situations,  thousands  of  patches  of  thriving  vegetation; 
much  as  now,  every  year,  is  observed  in  Egypt,  on 
the  retiring  of  the  waters  of  the  Nile.  Among  these 
patches  of  verdure,  the  rapidly  shooting  scions  of  seed- 
ling trees,  and  vines  and  shrubs,  in  countless  variety 
might  appear.  The  presentation,  by  the  dove,  of  a  green 
olive  leaf  to  Noah  who  was  still  in  the  ark,  and  the 
planting  of  a  vineyard  by  Noah,  when  he  had  again  a 
settled  habitation  on  the  earth,  are  easily  accounted  for. 
Moses  does  not  affirm  that  the  dove  bore  to  Noah  an 
olive  branch,  nor  yet  the  twig  of  an  olive-tree,  but  sim- 
ply a  green  olive  haf.  The  leaf  of  a  seedling  olive  plant, 
some  few  days  old,  would  have  answered  every  purpose, 


352  THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

to  indicate  the  ground  left  dry  by  the  retiring  waters, 
and  the  commencing  of  vegetation.  Nor  does  Moses  tell 
us  how  soon  it  was  after  Noah  had  left  the  ark,  that  he 
planted  a  vineyard.  It  might  have  been  several  years 
afterwards  ;  affording  ample  time  for  the  seedling  vines, 
growing  rapidly  in  the  virgin  soil,  to  attract  the  attention 
of  Noah,  by  the  excellence  and  abundance  of  their  fruits. 
Possibly,  the  vine  may  have  been  unknown,  in  the 
regions  wherein  Noali  and  his  family  had  resided  before 
the  flood.  These  circumstances  do,  then,  present  no  seri- 
ous objection  against  the  theory  I  have  proposed. 

But  against  the  universality  of  Hie  deluge  in  itself  con- 
sidered^ and  independently  of  the  mode  in  which  it  may 
have  been  effected,  other^  and  very  weighty  objections  lie. 

The  ark,  it  is  said,  had  not  sufficient  capacity  to  accom- 
modate the  immense  number  of  living  animals  that 
must  have  perished  if  left  to  battle  with  the  waters  of 
the  flood. 

The  dimensions  of  the  ark  are  given  by  Moses,  with 
great  minuteness  of  particularity.  Biblical  interpreters, 
about  a  century  ago,  made  sundry  calculations  to  show 
that  the  ark  was  sufficiently  capacious  to  contain  pairs  of 
all  terrestrial  animals,  and  septuples  of  those  counted 
clean,  and  also  of  birds,  and  reptiles,  with  sufficient  space 
for  their  accommodation,  for  air,  and  for  the  storage  of 
provisions  and  water.  These  calculations  are  undoubt- 
edly based  on  far  too  low  an  estimate  of  the  number  of 
living  animals. 

By  one  writer  it  was  computed  that  the  entire  number 
of  animals  requiring  shelter  would  not  exceed  the  equiv- 
alent of  five  hundred  horses;  a  number  which  he  has 
shown  by  careful  calculation,  could  be  readily  accommo- 


THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL.  353 

dated,  fed  and  attended,  in  a  vessel  of  dimensions  sucli 
as  Moses  ascribes  to  the  ark. 

A  late  writer  reminds  us  that  in  1778,  Linnaeus  esti- 
mated the  entire  number  of  known  animals  at  6000  spe- 
cies, (Dr.  Beard's  Bible  Dictionary.) 

Since  his  time,  the  number  has  been  greatly  increased. 
Even  in  1842,  ten  years  ago,  the  number  of  mammalia 
known,  {i.  e.  of  animals  that  suckle  their  young,)  was 
1000 ;  of  birds  6000 ;  of  reptiles,  and  amphibious  animals, 
1500.  The  bounds  of  zoological  knowledge,  are  still 
constantly  extending. 

But,  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  of  all  these,  the 
vastly  greater  proportion  are  small ;  and  numbers  of 
them  could  be  placed  together  in  the  same  compartment 
of  the  ark.  Many  animals,  also,  are  torpid  during  the 
winter,  and  would  probably  lie  dormant  during  the  long 
wintry  storm  of  the  deluge;  while,  for  all  of  them,  much 
less  than  the  usual  amount  of  food  would  suffice,  in  con- 
sequence of  their  inactivity  during  the  whole  period  of 
their  confinement  in  a  floating  vessel. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  ridicule  that  has  been  em- 
ployed to  bring  into  contempt  the  idea  of  preserving 
alive  in  the  ark  specimens  of  all  animals,  sufficient  to 
perpetuate  all  the  several  species  on  the  subsiding  of  the 
deluge ;  I  have,  as  yet,  seen  nothing  to  shake  my  confi- 
dence in  the  credibility  of  the  Mosaic  story  of  the  ark.  The 
same  God  who  promised  to  Noah  that  pairs  of  all  living 
creatures  should  come  to  Mm^  to  be  kept  alive  in  the  ark, 
(Gen.  vi.  20,)  could  and  would  so  arrange  all  circumstances 
and  all  events,  as  that  the  preservation  of  all  these  animals 
should  be  secured.  The  Mosaic  narrative  does,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  represent  this  whole  affair  as  out  of  the  ordi- 


354  THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL. 

nary  course  of  nature.  God  himself  did  directly  inter- 
fere. 

But  it  is  confidently  alleged  that  so  many  animals^  from 
climates  the  most  varied  and  opposite^  even  if  brought 
together,  could  not  possibly  exist  for  so  long  a  period  as  the 
deluge  lasted.  Of  this  objection  every  travelling  mena- 
gerie, furnishes  the  refutation.  The  white  bear  from  the 
Arctic  Ocean,  the  lion  from  the  burning  deserts  of  Africa, 
the  tiger  from  the  jungles  of  Bengal,  the  elephant  from 
Ceylon,  the  llama  from  South  America,  the  ourang-outang 
from  Borneo,  and  even  the  kangaroo  from  New  Holland, 
with  the  armadillo  of  Central  America,  and  the  bear  of 
the  Kocky  Mountains,  have  been  known  to  exist  for 
many  months,  and  even  years,  side  by  side,  in  the  same 
menagerie. 

During  the  continuance  of  the  deluge  the  temperature 
of  the  atmosphere  would  probably  be  a  medium  between 
the  intense  cold  of  the  Arctic,  and  the  fiery  heats  of  the 
tropics, — a  temperature  in  which  all  animals  could  exist 
for  a  considerable  length  of  time. 

It  has,  moreover,  been  asserted,  that  if  the  ark  was 
raised  by  the  flood  above  the  highest  mountains,  the 
height  is  so  great,  and  the  atmosphere  is  so  rare  and  so 
cold  at  that  height,  (as  the  experience  of  all  explorers 
among  the  summit  crags  of  lofty  mountains  shows,)  that, 
if  the  very  surface  of  the  water  was  not  all  frozen,  yet  the 
tropical  animals  must  have  inevitably  perished,  and  all, 
save  the  arctic  animals,  must  have  suffered  severely. 

But,  on  the  hypothesis  I  have  advanced,  viz.,  that  the 
ancient  continents  all  sank,  and  the  primeval  ocean-bed 
was  upheaved,  this  extreme  elevation  would  not  have 
been  reached  by  the  ark.     And  even  if  it  were,  just  so 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  355 

far  as  the  water  rose,  the  air  would  rise  with  it  and  above 
it,  air  being  a  lighter  fluid  than  water ;  so  that  the  at- 
mosphere on  the  surface  of  the  water,  where  the  ark 
always  remained,  would  retain  its  ordinary  density,  and 
very  nearly  also,  its  usual  temperature. 

Another  difficulty  meets  usj  when  we  seek  to  account  for 
the  spread  of  the  animals  saved  in  the  ark,  each  to  its  ap- 
propriate climate  and  locality. 

On  the  surface  of  our  globe  are  found  many  regions, 
or  districts,  each  having  its  own  animal  as  well  as  vege- 
table occupants — a  region  wherein  the  animals  peculiar 
to  it  live  and  flourish,  and  nowhere  else  so  well.  True ! 
We  do  find  such  zoological  provinces,  to  which  their 
animal  occupants  seem  fitted  by  the  Creator.  They 
flourish  best  there,  as,  e.  g.  the  elephant  in  India,  the 
kangaroo  in  New  Holland,  the  chamois  among  the 
highest  Alps,  the  crocodile  in  the  Nile  of  Nubia.  But, 
under  extraordinary  circumstances,  they  can,  we  know, 
exist  for  a  considerable  length  of  time,  in  other  localities, 
and  they  can  subsist  too  on  other  than  their  ordinary 
food.  The  deluge  did  present  extraordinary  circum- 
stances ;  and  He  who  formed  all  animals,  and  endowed 
them  with  their  several  peculiar  instincts,  could  guide 
them,  step  by  step,  by  their  instincts,  through  all  inter- 
vening regions,  until  they  reached,  each  one,  his  proper 
locality. 

To  restrict  the  extension  of  animal  life  from  one  com- 
mon centre,  over  all  the  three  continents  of  the  old  world, 
no  formidable  impediments  occur. 

This  continent  was  probably  tenanted  at  a  later  period, 
by  way  of  the  points  nearest  to  the  Asiatic  coasts. 
While  even  New  Holland  may  have  been  formerly  con- 


856  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

nected,  with  but  slight  intervening  gaps,  with  the 
southern  peninsula  of  Asia.  In  the  isles  of  the  great 
Pacific  but  very  few  animals  were  found,  by  the  first 
European  discoverers.  These  island-animals  were  small, 
and  such  as  might  very  easily  have  been  transported  in 
the  canoes,  and  other  frail  vessels  in  which  the  first  hu- 
man tenants  were  driven  by  storms,  or  borne  by  ocean- 
currents  to  those  isles  :  but  little  difficulty  can  be  felt  in 
accounting  for  their  animal  tenantry. 

But,  were  the  difficulty  attending  this  subject  tenfold 
greater,  and  seemingly  beyond  all  satisfactory  explana- 
tion, (as  may  possibly  be  esteemed  the  zoology  of  New 
Holland,)  if  I  find  it  recorded  in  the  book  of  revelation, 
that  in  the  deluge  "  every  living  tiling  in  which  is  the  breatii 
of  life  perished^  and  Noah  only  remained  alive,  and  tiiey  tiiat 
were  witii  him  in  the  ark,"  I  could  still  believe  it  implicitly, 
satisfied  that  the  difficulty  of  explanation  springs  solely 
from  the  imperfection  of  human  knowledge,  and  not 
from  any  limitation  in  the  power  or  the  wisdom  of  God, 
nor  yet  from  any  lack  of  trustworthiness  in  the  document 
given  to  us  as  a  revelation  from  God — a  document  given 
to  man  by  the  hands  of  Moses,  the  learned,  accomplished, 
and  eminently  devout  Jewish  legislator  1 

Again,  it  is  objected  that,  even  of  aquatic  animals,  many 
live  only  in  fresh  water,  and  would  perish  in  the  salt 
waters  of  the  ocean  ;  others  exist  only  in  salt  water,  and 
could  not  possibly  live  several  weeks  in  fresh ;  and 
others,  again,  are  so  organized  that  they  can  inhabit  only 
brackish  waters,  such  as  that  found  in  the  estuaries  of 
rivers,  like  Mobile  Bay,  or  like  the  waters  of  the  Hudson 
river  opposite  to  Jersey  City  and  Hoboken,  and  like  the 
waters  of  the  Mississippi  below  New  Orleans,  and  near 


THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  357 

* 

the  Balize.  A  universal  deluge  must,  therefore,  have 
annihilated  the  whole  race  of  fresh- water  animals  and 
moluscs  over  the  entire  surface  of  the  globe. 

True,  such  distinction  of  fresh  and  of  salt  water  moluscs 
and  fishes,  does  exist.  But  who  has  tested  with  suffi- 
cient accuracy  the  capability  of  these  fresh-water  ani- 
mals for  the  endurance  of  a  Salter  element,  to  decide 
positively  that  they  could  not  have  lived  through  the  pe- 
riod of  the  universal  overflow  ? 

Suppose,  however,  that  all  the  living  tenants  of  fresh 
water  actually  perished,  may  not  the  spawn  of  these 
several  varieties  have  been  floating  uninjured  in  the  wa- 
ters, or  have  lain  protected  beneath  and  around  stones 
and  rocks  in  secluded  places,  on  the  newly  upheaved 
lands,  which  finally  settled,  where  but  little  current  could 
disturb  the  precious  deposit,  that  was  spread  abundantly 
where  the  rivers  of  the  new  continents  would  begin  gen- 
tly to  flow,  and  the  lakes  to  embosom  themselves  ?  In 
this  way  ample  means  may  have  been  provided  for  con- 
tinuing the  races  of  fresh-water  fishes  and  moluscs,  which 
multiply,  as  we  know,  with  astonishing  rapidity,  in  ordi- 
nary circumstances. 

May  it  not  even  be  true,  that  the  germs  of  animal 
life  lie  imbedded  at  this  very  moment  beneath  the 
stratum  forming  the  bed  of  the  ocean,  and  that  they  are 
so  guarded  by  surrounding  mud,  and  the  immense  pres- 
sure of  ocean's  waters,  from  all  action  of  the  atmosphere, 
and  from  all  escape  of  vital  moisture  and  gas,  that  vital- 
ity still  exists  there — so  that  when,  ages  hence,  the  pres- 
ent ocean-bed  shall  be  upheaved,  it  shall  bring  with  it 
to  the  sun  and  air,  the  seeds  of  appropriate  animal  no 
less  than  vegetable  life,  in  countless  myriads  ?     And  why 


358  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

may  it  not  have  been  thus  with  lands  upheaved  at  the 
deluge  ?  We  know  that  seeds  which  had  been  lying  for 
many  centuries  entombed  with  Egyptian  mummies,  have, 
with  proper  care,  been  found  capable  of  germinating. 
And  it  is  said  that  insects,  which  had  for  years  been  in- 
closed in  liquors  kept  in  closely  sealed  bottles,  have,  on 
exposure  to  air  and  light,  revived  to  perfect  vigor  and 
activity.  (Dr.  J.  P.  Smith,  p.  116  ;  Humboldt's  Cosmos, 
vol.  i.  p.  345,  note.)  To  one  instance  of  the  kind,  at 
least,  I  can  myself  testify.  The  preservation  of  fresh- 
water animals  does,  then,  present  no  serious  objection 
against  the  universality  of  the  deluge. 

Again.  Trees  sometimes  attain  to  great  longevity;  and, 
by  observing  the  rings,  successively  formed,  each  year, 
beneath  the  bark,  in  the  growth  of  the  tree,  a  reasonable 
certainty  as  to  its  age  may  be  attained.  Now,  in  some 
parts  of  Africa,  and  even  in  Mexico,  trees  are  now  stand- 
ing, which,  judged  by  this  test,  must,  it  is  asserted,  be 
pronounced  three,  four,  and  some  even  five  thousand 
years  old  or  more.  But  if  this  be  true,  then  some  of  these 
trees  must  have  been  growing  one  thousand  years  before 
the  date  of  Noah's  deluge,  as  ordinarily  computed.  (Dr. 
J.  P.  Smith,  p.  117,  and  Supplement  Notel.  See  also  Ly- 
ell,  Princ.  p.  405.  Humboldt's  Aspects  of  Nature,  p.  287.) 
Such  trees  could  not  possibly  live,  submerged  for  seve- 
ral months,  under  water.  Hence,  it  is  confidently  main- 
tained, we  have  proof  that  the  countries  where  these  trees 
are  growing,  could  not  have  been  covered  by  the  waters 
of  Noah's  deluge.    (Aspects  of  Nature,  Humboldt,  p.  287.) 

In  answer  to  this  objection,  I  would  observe,  it  is  obvious 
that  very  great  uncertainty  must  always  attend  even  the 


THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL.  859 

most  careful  attempts  to  compute  the  age  of  extremely 
old  trees,  by  counting  the  rings  in  the  wood. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that,  every  time  a  new  set  of 
leaves  is  produced  by  a  tree,  a  new  ring  is  formed  in  the 
trunk.  We  know  that  sometimes,  in  tropical  countries 
at  least,  from  the  effects  of  drought,  or  of  the  ravages  of  in- 
sects, trees  shed  and  renew  their  leaves  twice,  or  even 
three  times,  in  the  course  of  a  single  year.  In  each  of 
such  years,  two  or  three  rings  would  be  formed  in  the 
trunk. 

Besides:  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  age  of 
these  majestic  trees,  the  tree  is  not  cut  down,  it  is  merely 
bored,  and  a  plug  is  extracted. 

The  causes  of  error  are,  therefore,  too  numerous,  and 
too  palpable,  to  allow  us  to  rely  with  confidence  on  the 
results  of  such  calculations. 

Four  thousand  years,  at  the  very  least,  have  elapsed 
since  the  flood ;  a  period  long  enough,  one  would  sup- 
pose, to  account  for  the  growth  of  any  tree,  now  on 
earth,  however  gigantic ! 

But  another^  and  afar  more  serious  objection  to  the  univer- 
sality of  the  deluge^  is  found  in  the  appearance  of  various  vol- 
canic regions,  in  different  countries :  as,  e.  g.  Mount  ^tna 
in  Sicily ;  also  the  province  of  Auvergne  in  the  south 
of  France,  and  a  region  in  Asia  Minor.  In  the  south  of 
France,  in  a  district  about  forty  miles  long  by  twenty 
broad,  are  found  many  cones,  craters,  and  other  marks 
of  ancient  volcanic  action;  showing  that  once  there  must 
have  stood  there,  a  great  number  of  contiguous  burning 
mountains,  some  of  them  nearly  equal  in  size  to  Vesu- 
vius. Similar  cones  and  craters  are  found  in  Asia  Mi- 
nor.   The  period  when  these  craters  were  in  action,  must 


360  THE   DELUGE    UNIVERSAL. 

far  antedate  the  earliest  historic  records  of  those  coun- 
tries :  since  no  notice  of  volcanoes  in  action  there,  nor 
allusions  to  them,  nor  traces  of  tradition  respecting  these 
volcanoes  in  action^appear  in  any  ancient  writings  known 
to  us. 

In  the  country  around  some  of  these  craters  and  cones, 
(which  are  themselves  but  vast  heaps  of  cinders  and  sco- 
riae, thrown  out  by  the  volcano  whose  mouth  they  sur- 
round, just  as  we  now  see  the  cone  continually  enlarging 
around  the  volcanic  mouth  of  Vesuvius,)  are  still  to  be 
seen  vast  beds  of  lava,  once  fluid,  but  now  rock  of  the 
hardest  kind,  that  flowed  over  a  surface  many  miles  in 
extent.  In  some  places,  rivers  have  worn  their  way 
through  these  masses  of  rock  lava,  in  a  channel  a  hun- 
dred and  more  feet  deep.*  In  other  places  in  the  same 
region  are  to  be  seen  beds  of  lava  alternating  with 
vegetable  mould,  or  with  mineral  deposits,  and  with 
strata  containing  fossil  remains,  many  of  them  of  extinct 
species.  All  which  circumstances  serve  to  attest  the  vast 
antiquity  of  this  region,  and  of  the  volcanoes,  once  ac- 
tive, that  ejected  these  beds  of  lava  and  scoriae. 

Further ;  on  the  sides  of  Mount  ^tna  similar  extinct 
craters,  and  cinder  cones  are  found,  some  of  them  so  long 
extinct,  that  they  have  become  covered  with  a  thick 
growth  of  forest. 

A  careful  examination  of  these  volcanic  districts,  these 
extinct  craters,  and  these  cones,  by  competent  observers, 
shows,  it  is  said,  no  mark  or  trace  of  the  action  of  water. 
Had  the  waters  of  Noah's  deluge  overflowed  the  regions 

*  For  a  very  interesting  account  of  this  volcanic  region  of  Auvergne, 
see  Richardson's  Geology  for  Beginners,  pp.  433-438  :  and  see  also  The 
Course  of  Creation,  by  Dr.  Anderson  of  Scotland,  pp.  280-283. 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  361 

where  these  cones  stand,  the  cinders  of  which  they  are 
composed  being  light,  like  pumice-stone,  they  must  have 
been  washed  away,  almost  entirely. 

Plain  it  is,  then,  we  are  told,  these  countries  were  not 
submerged  beneath  the  waters  of  the  deluge*.  That 
deluge  could  not,  therefore,  have  been  universal :  it 
must  have  been  a  mere-  local  inundation ;  confined  to 
those  regions  in  the  interior  of  Asia,  over  which,  alone, 
the  antediluvian  race  of  man  had  spread. 

The  difficulty  just  stated  is,  it  must  be  frankly  ad- 
mitted, a  grave  one.  Of  all  the  objections  urged  against 
the  universality  of  the  Noachian  deluge,  this  drawn  from 
appearances  presented  in  certain  volcanic  regions,  strikes 
me  as  by  far  the  most  serious.  It  is  very  plausible,  and 
on  a  first  view,  it  seems  almost  insuperable;  because, 
although  for  the  mere  production,  and  the  subsequent 
disposal  of  the  water;  for  the  safe  keeping  and  suste- 
nance of  all  in  the  ark ;  for  the  subsequent  dispersion  of 
man  and  of  the  animals,  to  their  appropriate  localities 
over  the  face  of  the  entire  earth,  the  direct  intervention 
of  the  Creator  may  be  reasonably  appealed  to,  yet  we 
cannot  bring  ourselves  to  suppose  that  that  intervention 
would  have  been  employed,  for  preventing  the  usual 
effects  produced  by  such  a  body  of  water  as  that  of  the 
deluge,  being  left  visible  in  every  region  where  it  had 
spread ;  nor  yet  for  obliterating  the  marks  of  its  action 
that  would  be  left  after  the  waters  had  subsided. 

If  these  volcanic  craters  and  cones  be  as  old  as  geolo- 
gists conjecture,  then  they  must  have  withstood  the 
washing  and  surging  of  the  overflowing  waters  of  the 
deluge,  on  the  popular  view  of  that  event ;  or  else  they 
must  have  emerged  from  the  sea,  as  they  now  are,  on  the 

16 


862  THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

upheaval  of  the  region  where  they  stand,  according  to 
the  hypothesis  I  have  advanced.  The  total  absence  of 
all  traces  left  by  the  action  of  water  upon  these  cinder 
cones,  seems  peremptorily  to  forbid  either  of  these  alter- 
natives. Hence  the  inference  presented  in  the  objection : 
these  volcanic  regions  could  not  have  been  overflowed 
by  the  waters  of  the  deluge ;  that  deluge  must,  therefore, 
have  been  a  local  inundation  only. 

But  the  plain  language  of  Moses,  and  all  the  circum- 
stances he  details,  and  the  uniform  representations  of 
that  event,  and  the  allusions  to  it,  found  in  various  pas- 
sages of  Scripture,  compel  us  to  believe  that  the  deluge 
was  literally  universal^  covering  the  entire  surface  of  our 
globe,  so  that  these  volcanic  regions  could  not  have 
escaped.  Whatever  be  the  difficulties  attending  this 
view  of  that  event,  it  is  the  only  view  the  language  of 
the  Bible  will  authorize.  If  we  cannot  trust  our  inter- 
pretation of  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  deluge,  all  certainty 
of  interpretation  seems  hopeless. 

The  deluge  was  universal.  That  is  certain,  if  unequiv- 
ocal language,  used  by  a  man  inspired  of  God,  can  make 
any  position  certain.  In  conformity  with  that  one  fioced 
fact^  all  the  appearances  presented  on  our  planet  must, 
by  a  Christian  philosopher,  be  interpreted.  And  happily 
in  this  case,  formidable  though  the  objections  drawn  from 
these  volcanic  regions  appear  at  first,  a  little  patient  at- 
tention will  show,  they  are  not  fatal  to  the  truth  of  the 
Mosaic  doctrine,  nor  inconsistent  with  it. 

We  may  cheerfully  concede  that  the  wearing  away  of 
hard  rock,  such  as  lava,  by  the  action  of  water  alone,  is 
a  very  slow  process ;  and  that  for  a  river  to  wear,  in  such 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

hard  lava  rock,  a  channel  "  a  hundred  or  more  feet  de&p^'^ 
would  require  a  long  succession  of  ages. 

Thus  we  know  that  the  basaltic  rocks,  volcanic  in  their 
origin,  which  constitute  and  surround  the  Giant's  Cause- 
way, in  the  north  of  Ireland,  and  Fingal's  Cave  in  the 
isle  of  Staffa,*  near  the  western  coast  of  Scotland,  exhibit 
but  little  evidence  of  wear,  after  many  centuries  of  expo- 
sure to  the  action  of  the  heavy  tides,  and  the  furious 
storms  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  So  that,  if  these  deep 
channels  in  the  lava  beds  of  Auvergne  have  been  worn 
solely  by  the  ordinary  action  of  water  steadily  flowing,  it 
may  have  required,  perhaps,  many  thousands  of  years 
longer  than  can  be  supposed  to  have  intervened  between 
the  days  of  Noah,  and  our  time. 

But  who  will  undertake  to  prove  that  these  channels 
have  been  worn  by  the  ordinary  action  of  water  alone  ? 
Who  shall  say  that  the  rock  itself  is  not  composed  of  such 
materials  that,  though  to  the  observer  seemingly  homo- 
geneous, even  when  tried  by  all  known  chemical  tests,  it 
is  in  some  places,  more  yielding  to  the  action  of  water  than 
in  others  ?  Or  who  will  prove  that  the  mountain  tor- 
rents do  not,  at  times,  come  charged  with  such  ingredi- 
ents held  in  solution,  as  that,  when  commingled  in  one 
stream,  in  the  river,  their  chemical  action  is  such  as  to 
effect,  in  the  lava  rock  over  which  they  roll,  a  solutionf 

*  Richardson,  p.  238.    Course  of  Creation,  p.  166. 

f  It  was  with  no  ordinary  interest  that,  since  the  above  remarks  were 
written,  and  were  published  in  the  Southern  Presbyterian,  I  found,  in 
Lyell's  Principles  of  Geology,  pp.  250  and  251,  the  following  statements 
in  relation  to  these  volcanic  rocks  in  Auvergne,  which  verify  as  fact  the 
supposition  above  given  as  a  theory,  for  the  solution  of  the  difficulty. 
"  Carbonated  springs,  Auvergne.  Carbonic  acid  gas  is  very  plentifully  dis- 
engaged from  springs  in  almost  all  countries,  but  particularly  near  active  or 


364  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

of  feet  and  yards,  in  one  single  season,  where,  under  other 
circumstances,  the  wear  would  be  hardly  perceptible,  in 
half  a  century  ?  Are  all  the  agencies  of  nature  known 
to  us? 

A  thousand  years  are  a  very  long  period,  and  in  one 
thousand  years,  many  times  may  recur  those  extraordi- 

extirict  volcanoes.  This  elastic  fluid  has  the  property  of  decomposing 
many  of  the  hardest  rocks  with  which  it  comes  in  contact,  particularly 
that  numerous  class,  in  whose  composition  felspar  is  an  ingredient.  It 
renders  the  oxide  of  iron  soluble  in  water,  and  contributes,  as  was  before 
stated,  to  the  solution  of  calcareous  matter.  In  volcanic  districts,  these 
gaseous  emanations  arc  not  confined  to  springs,  but  rise  up  in  the  state 
of  pure  gas,  from  the  soil  in  various  places.  Prodigious  quantities  of 
this  gas  are  now  annually  disengaged  from  every  part  of  the  Limagne 
d'Auvergne,  where  it  appears  to  have  been  developed  in  equal  quantity, 
from  time  immemorial. 

'•  In  the  environs  of  Pont  Gibaud,  not  far  from  Clermont,  a  rock  be- 
longing to  the  gneiss  formation,  in  which  lead  mines  are  worked,  has 
been  found  to  be  quite  saturated  with  carbonic  acid  gas  which  is  con- 
stantly disengaged.  The  carbonates  of  lime,  of  iron,  and  manganese  are 
so  dissolved,  that  the  rock  is  rendered  soft,  and  the  quartz  alone  remains 
unattacked.  Not  far  off  is  the  small  volcanic  cone  of  Chaluzet,  which 
once  broke  up  through  the  gneiss,  and  sent  forth  a  lava  stream."  (Lyell. 
Princ.  Geol.  p.  260.) 

The  same  indefatigable  investigator  of  nature  has  a  paragraph  on  the 
very  next  page,  in  relation  to  the  granite  rock  underlying  these  lava  beds 
in  Auvergne.  (See  Richardson,  p.  436.)  "  Disintegratimi  of  Granite  in 
Auvergnc :  Disintegrating  effects  of  carbonic  add.  The  disintegration 
of  granite  is  a  striking  feature  of  large  districts  in  Auvergne,  especially  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Clermont.  (N.B.  The  district  which  is  the  site  of  the 
volcanic  cones,  and  of  the  beds  of  lava,  and  of  granite  here  spoken  of,  is 
called  La  Limagne  t^'At/v^rg-Tic,  remarkable  for  its  fertility,  as  is  the  case 
with  all  soils  formed  of  volcanic  detritus.  See  Richardson's  Geology,  p. 
436.  Lyell,  p.  250.)  This  decay  was  called  by  Dolomieu  '  la  maladie 
du  granite ;'  and  the  rock  may  with  propriety  be  said  to  have  the  rot, 
for  it  crumbles  to  pieces  in  the  hatid.  The  phenomenon  may,  without 
doubt,  be  ascribed  to  the  continual  disengagement  of  carbonic  acid  gas 
from  numerous  fissures."    (Lyell,  Princ.  Geol.  p.  261.) 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  885 

nary  events,  such  as  storms,  tornadoes,  water- spouts,  and 
other  phenomena,  the  effects  of  which  on  the  hardest 
mountain  cHffs  are  great,  wide-spread,  and  absolutely 
inconceivable  to  one  who  has  not  witnessed  them.  The 
writer  of  this  noticed  among  the  highlands  of  Scotland, 
the  effects  of  one  winter's  storms,  such  as  ages  of  ordi- 
nary wear  could  not  have  produced.  Deep  gorges  were 
worn  in  the  sides  of  solid  mountains.  Again,  in  passing, 
in  Switzerland,  from  Lucerne  to  the  Brunig  Pass,  the 
effects  of  a  recent  tornado  and  water-spout  were  seen.* 
Vast  rocks  had  been  hurled  from  the  loftiest  mountain 

*  The  power  of  mountain  torrents  in  wearing  away  solid  crags  and 
hard  rocks,  is  vividly  illustrated  among  the  Andes  in  South  America. 
See,  also,  the  description  given  by  Darwin,  of  what  he  calls  "  streams  of 
stones,"  (Voj^age  of  a  Naturalist,  vol.  i.  pp.  253,  255,)  the  effect  of  some 
great  convulsion.  "  I  have  seen,  in  the  Cordilleras  of  the  Andes,  (says 
Mr.  Darwin,)  the  evident  marks  where  stupendous  mountains  have  been 
broken  into  pieces,  like  so  much  thin  crust,  and  the  strata  thrown  on 
their  vertical  edges,  but  never  did  any  scene,  like  these  'streams  of  stones,^ 
80  forcibly  convey  to  my  mind  the  idea  of  a  convulsion,  of  which,  in  his- 
torical records,  we  might  in  vain  seek  for  any  counterpart"'  (vol.  i.  p.  255.) 

"The  power  of  running  water  to  erode  the  solid  rocks,  (says  Richardson, 
p.  442,  speaking  of  this  very  district  of  Auvergne,)  and  to  produce  valleys 
by  their  currents,  is  strikingly  exemplified  throughout  the  whole  of  this 
remarkable  district.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  erosive  power  of  water 
has  been  aided  by  the  proneness  of  the  volcanic  rocks  to  decompose !  In  some 
instances  beds  of  lava  have  been  corroded  by  waters  which  have  worn 
through  a  mass  of  rock  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  height,  and  have 
formed  a  channel,  even  in  the  granite  beneath,  since  the  lava  first  flowed 
into  the  valley. 

"  In  another  spot,  a  bed  of  basalt  one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  high  has 
been  cut  through  by  a  mountain  stream,"  (p.  442.) 

The  same  writer  remarks  that  "on  the  Rhine,  every  castellated  sum- 
mit throughout  the  entire  region,  from  Bonn  to  Mayence,  are  so  many 
piles  of  volcanic  rock,  tJie  decomposition  of  which  constitutes  a  rich  and 
luxuriant  soil,  forming  a  very  hot-bed  for  the  cultivation  of  the  grape." 
(Id.  p.  443.) 


366  THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL. 

peaks,  and  bad  been  poured  in  one  continuous  stream  of 
gigantic  fragments,  all  down  the  mountain's  side,  and 
far  over  a  lovely  valley.  Centuries  of  ordinary  wear 
could  not  have  so  changed  the  face  of  the  country. 

But  we  need  not  recur  to  this  hypothesis,  so  probable 
in  itself,  and  so  accordant  to  the  settled  irregularity  of 
the  course  of  nature,  of  occasional  convulsions,  and  ex- 
traordinary phenomena,  that  must  have  occurred  in  the 
vast  period  of  four  thousand  years,  that  have  elapsed 
since  the  upheaval  of  these  volcanic  regions,  to  wear,  in 
the  lava  rock  of  Auvergne,  the  deep  channels  in  which 
the  streams  of  that  volcanic  region  now  flow.  We  can 
satisfactorily  account  for  all  the  phenomena  now  found 
there,  without  this  supposition. 

We  may  readilj^  admit  the  vast  antiquity  of  this  whole 
region,  and  of  the  volcanic  craters  there  found.  When 
upheaved  from  the  depths  of  ocean,  in  the  days  of  Noah, 
these  lava  beds  may  have  been  already  formed,  and  the 
water  channels  now  seen  therein,  may  have  been  already 
deeply  worn.  For,  the  presence  of  alternate  beds  of  lava, 
and  of  vegetable  soil,  and  the  existence  there  of  strata 
presenting  fossil  remains  of  extinct  animals,  show  clearly, 
this  region  has,  like  many  others  on  our  globe,  been 
several  times  upheaved,  and  again  submerged  ;  and  again 
upheaved.  Those  now  extinct  volcanoes,  may  have  been 
in  action  in  a  former  period  of  upheaval,  and  active,  even 
when  submerged,  as  we  know  does  sometimes  happen. 
We  know  too  that  whole  regions  are  upheaved,  and  sink 
again,  so  steadily,  that  every  hill  and  rock,  nay  even 
buildings  erected  by  men,  retain  their  position,  both  posi- 
tively and  relatively.  Thus  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Serapis 
on  the  shores  of  the  bay  of  Naples,  has  been  twice  eleva- 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  367 

ted,  and  has  twice  sunk,  to  the  extent  of  at  least  twenty 
feet  each  time,  since  the  Christian  sera,  and  yet  many  of 
the  marble  columns  of  the  temple  which  show  unmis- 
takable proofs  of  this  alteration  of  level,  are  still  standing 
perfectly  upright  to  the  present  day,  as  I  can  personally 
testify.  (See  Eichardson,  p.  422.)  So  also  these  vol- 
canic regions,  after  having  bared  their  lava  rocks  to  the 
action  of  the  elements  and  the  streams  for  ages  before 
Adam  was,  may  have  sunk  beneath  the  waters,  and 
emerging  again  steadily  in  the  days  of  Noah,  the  same 
water- worn  lava  rocks  may  have  presented  their  well- 
worn  channels,  for  the  passage  of  the  stream  again  flow- 
ing in  the  ancient  beds,  as  their  most  natural  course. 

If  on  this  last  emergence  of  this  ancient  volcanic  region, 
the  old  craters  again  burst  forth  into  action,  the  long  in- 
terval between  the  deluge,  and  the  historic  age  in  these 
regions  in  the  south  of  Europe,  will  yield  ample  time  for 
the  formation  of  the  cones  of  cinders  and  scoriae  now  ob- 
served. Volcanic  action  having  now  ceased  for  many 
centuries,  and  no  fresh  accumulation  of  cinders  and  of 
scoriae  taking  place,  these  apparently  unsuitable  materials 
are  converted  into,  or  they  become  covered  with,  a  pro- 
ductive soil  in  a  much  shorter  time  than  many  geologists 
seem  to  suppose,  as  has  been  shown  more  than  once,  in 
answer  to  the  objections  against  the  Mosaic  aera  of  the 
deluge,  drawn  from  the  alternate  strata  of  lava  and  vege- 
table mould  passed  through,  in  the  digging  of  a  well  in 
Sicily,  as  mentioned  by  the  traveller  Brydoue.  When 
his  observations  were  first  published,  it  was  confidently 
maintained  that  two  thousand  years  were  requisite  to 
convert  hard  lava  into  vegetable  mould ;  and  that  as 
seven  of  these  alternating  strata  were  passed  through,  the 


S68  THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL. 

lowest  bed  of  lava  must  have  there  overflowed,  at  least 
fourteen  thousand  years  since ;  consequently  the  Mosaic 
story  of  a  universal  deluge  four  or  five  thousand  years 
ago,  could  not  be  true.  But,  more  extended  and  careful 
research  has  furnished  evidence  to  show,  that  a  few  cen- 
turies will  sometimes  suflBce  to  accomplish  this  change. 
Even  the  materials  overlying  Herculaneum,  and  the  sides 
of  Vesuvius,  where  lava  has  so  frequently  overflowed, 
and  where  the  freshly  reduced  volcanic  soil  is  so  speedily 
covered  again  with  vineyards,  and  houses,  aiFord  ample 
evidence  of  this.  The  mere  fact,  on  which  so  much  stress 
has  been  laid,  that  many  of  these  old  volcanic  cones, 
especially  on  the  sides  of  Mount  -^tna,  are  now  covered 
with  large  forest  trees,  shows  indeed  that  these  cones  sur- 
round crater-mouths  which  have  been  inactive  for  a  long 
time,  for  many  centuries  probably.  But,  with  all  defer- 
ence to  the  accomplished  Lyell  be  it  said,  this  fact  fur- 
nishes no  shadow  of  a  proof,  that  these  cones  have  been 
standing  as  they  now  are,  since  the  time  of  Noah,  and 
before  it. 

The  four  thousand  (perhaps  we  may  say,  five  thou- 
sand) years  or  more,  that  have  elapsed  since  the  deluge, 
comprise  a  great  many  centuries,  and  afford  ample  time 
for  the  accomplishment  of  changes  far  more  extraordinary, 
than  the  extinguishing  of  all  these  once  active  craters,  the 
conversion  of  the  materials  of  numbers  of  them  into  pro- 
ductive soil,  and  the  clothing  of  these  volcanic  cones 
with  a  dense  forest  of  huge  trees. 

Many  a  man  in  these  Western  States  can  point  to 
rugged  spots,  once  bare  of  all  vegetation,  save  only  a 
scanty  herbage,  but  now,  shaded  by  large  trees  several  feet 
in   girth,   and  all  within   the   memory  of  the  settlers. 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  869 

The  hardest  rock,  when  exposed  to  the  elements,  speedily 
shows  a  coating  of  vegetation :  and  when  masses  of  rock 
are  fissured  and  fractured,  vegetation  once  begun,  pro- 
gresses rapidly.  Lichens,  mosses,  grasses,  weeds,  and  a 
stunted  shrubbery,  gradually  succeed  each  other ;  and  this 
stage  once  reached,  soil  rapidly  accumulateif  by  the  depo- 
sition of  vegetable  mattpr,  and  by  the  disintegration  of 
the  rock  itself,  so  that  the  shrubbery  thickens,  sapling 
trees  appear  here  and  there,  and  before  many  centuries 
are  gone,  the  once  naked  fragments  of  rock  wave  with  a 
rank  vegetation,  beneath  the  shelter  of  towering  forest 
trees,  in  countless  numbers. 

If  hard  rock  shows  this  change  in  a  few  centuries,  how 
much  more  readily  must  it  take  place  upon  heaps  of  cin- 
ders, porous,  friable,  easily  reduced  to  powder,  and  often 
consisting  of  vegetable  and  animal  substance  but  half 
calcihed.  (See  Humboldt,  Aspects  of  Nature,  pp.  230, 231. 
Darwin's  Voy.  of  a  Nat.  vol.  ii.  pp.  85,  86,  296,  297.) 
.  Monte  Nuovo  near  Naples,  was  heaved  up  by  volcanic 
power  five  hundred  feet  high  in  one  night,  September 
29th,  1538,  only  a  few  centuries  ago.  It  is  already 
clothed,  partially  at  least,  with  vegetation  ;  and  if  nature 
be  there  left  to  take  its  course,  but  a  few  more  generations 
will  pass,  ere  Monte  Nuovo,  a  mere  volcanic  protrusion, 
shall  be  clothed  with  large  trees  also.  Geologists  are  too 
ready  to  deal  in  large  numbers,  and  to  ascribe  an  anti- 
quity of  thousands  of  yeats,  where  a  few  centuries  would 
be  nearer  the  truth.  Were  the  date  of  the  upheaval  of 
this  new  mountain  in  the  bay  of  Naples,  September  29fh, 
1538,^  not  perfectly  well  known,  geologists  would  not 
have  been  wanting,  who,  before  this  time,  would  have 
»  Lyell,  p.  348. 
IC* 


370  THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL. 

pronounced  Monte  Nuovo  of  vast  antiquity,  far  anteda- 
ting the  a;ra  of  the  flood !  When  soberly  considered, 
therefore,  the  cones  on  the  sides  of  Mount  ^tna,  and  the 
lava-beds  and  the  extinct  craters  and  volcanic  cones  of 
the  south  of  France,  and  of  Western  Asia,  present  no  in- 
surmountabte  objection  to  the  absolute  literal  universality 
of  Noah's  flood.  They  may  all  be  accounted  for  in  a 
manner  perfectly  consistent  with  that  universality. 

Another  ohjeclion  against  the  Mosaic  narrative  of  the 
deluge,  has  been  thus  presented : 

The  ark,  as  Moses  tells  us,  (Gen.  viii.  4,)  grounded  on 
Mount  Ararat ;  and  from  that  mountain,  Noah  and  the 
animals  emerging  from  the  ark,  descended  to  the  plains 
below.  Now,  it  is  said,  the  summit  of  Ararat  is  a  lofty 
granite  peak,  or  a  series  of  peaks,  covered  with  glaciers, 
and  nearly  inaccessible  to  man.  If  denuded  of  their  icy 
covering,  (as  they  must  have  been  by  the  washing  t)f  the 
waters  for  many  weeks  in  continuance,)  those  granite 
peaks  would  present  a  series  of  exceedingly  high,  and 
nearly  perpendicular  masses  of  rock,  down  which,  al- 
though not  without  great  difficulty  and  even  danger, 
mem  mirjlit  have  descended,  but  down  which  such  animals 
as  the  ox,  the  horse,  and  the  elephant  could  not  possibly 
have  moved  in  safety. 

Hence  it  is  inferred,  the  story  in  Genesis  cannot  be 
true,  if  understood  literally. 

To  this  objection  the  answer  is  easy. 

If  the  Mount  Ararat  mentioned  in  Genesis,  be  the  same 
mountain  that  now  bears  that  name,  it  does  not  follow 
that  the  very  highest  summit  is  intended.  Drawn  by 
eddies  into  a  basin  of  waters,  sheltered  by  a  range  of  the 
loftier  peaks  after  they  were  already  bared  above  the 


THE   DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  371 

waste  of  waters,  the  ark  might  have  remained  nearly 
stationary  for  some  time,  and  finally  have  grounded  on 
a  much  less  elevated  point,  whence  the  descent  would  be 
easy.  Transfer  the  case,  in  idea,  to  the  region  of  the 
Alleghanies,  or  of  the  White  Mountains,  and  we  can 
easily  discern  how  a  vessel  might  ground  upon  one  of  the 
ridges  of  such  mountains,  from  which  the  descent  would 
be  unattended  with  any  difficulty.  Or  suppose  such 
complete  inundation  in  Switzerland  that  should  cover  the 
"very  loftiest  Alps.  A  vessel  that  had  been  floating  on 
the  waters  of  such  inundation,  might  ground  on  the  sum- 
mit of  the  Wengern  Alp,  where  now  stands  a  chalat  for 
the  entertainment  of  travellers.  Lying  there,  it  could 
with  perfect  truth  be  said  to  rest  on  (he  Alps,  or  on  the 
summit  of  the  Alps,  as  much  as  if  it  had  been  arrested  on 
the  highest  pinnacles  of  the  Yung-frau.  From  this  latter, 
a  safe  descent  would  be  impossible  :  from  the  former  it 
would  be  entirely  practicable. 

One  m,ore  objection^  and  one  only,  will  here  be  noticed,' 
archoeohgical  in  its  character,  and  exciting,  at  the  present 
moment,  general  attention  in  the  literary  world. 

It  is  confidently  asserted,  the  deluge  could  not  have  been 
universal,  covering  the  whole  earth,  because  the  records  and 
the  monuments  of  several  oriental  nations  show  clearly  a  se- 
ries of  proof  s  running  back,  up  to,  and  even  far  beyond  the  mra 
of  NoaKs  deluge,  demonstrating  that  civilization  of  a  high 
grade,  and  also  a  very  dense  population  existed  in  Egypt  cer- 
tainly, and  probably  in  China  also,  at  the  very  time  when  a 
deluge  in  the  days  of  Noah,  had  it  been  universal,  must  have 
placed  Egypt,  miles  deep,  under  water  ! 

Thus  Monsieur  Ampere,  the  accomplished  French  trav- 
eller in  Egypt,  so  late  as  1848-9,  reiterates  the  assertion, 


372  THE  DELUGE    UNIVEKSAL. 

based  on  the  published  discoveries  of  the  Baron  Lepsius, 
that  monuments  do  still  exist  in  Egypt,  the  dates  of 
which  have  been  identified  step  by  step,  through  their 
hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  back  to  a  period  so  early  as 
2500  years  before  Abraham  :  i,  e.  upwards  of  4300  years 
before  Christ,  and  therefore  several  hundreds  of  years  an- 
tecedent to  the  date  of  the  creation  of  Adam,  as  computed 
by  Usher,  B.C.  4004.  (See  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Dec. 
1847,  p.  1035.)  Iden.  No.  III.  Les  Pyramides  p.  637. 

In  the  early  Chinese  history,  also,  dates  are  found  of 
extreme  antiquity,  as  far  back,  even  among  the  less  ex- 
travfigant  of  their  annals,  as  B.C.  2300,  and  B.C.  2637,  and 
to  B.C.  3400.  (See  in  this  work  the  Lecture  on  Creation 
in  Six  Days.) 

Without  here  entering  minutely  into  the  great  ques- 
tion of  scriptural  chronology,  which  is  reserved  for  future 
discussion,  it  may  be  remarked  that  no  judicious  writer 
now  ventures  to  regard  as  authoritative,  any  of  the  an- 
nals of  the  East,  whether  Chinese,  Hindoo,  or  Chaldiean, 
that  extend  beyond  about  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  cen- 
tury before  Christ.  The  Chinese  historians  give  an  ac- 
count of  reigns,  of  dynasties,  and  of.  remarkable  events, 
up  to  a  fj^bulous  antiquity,  and  that  also  with  great  mi- 
nuteness. But  we  know  that  Confucius,  about  B.C.  500, 
gave  these  works  to  his  countrymen :  professing,  indeed, 
to  have  compiled  them  from  authentic  ancient  archives: 
but  of  the  genuineness,  nay  even  of  the  existence  of  these 
ancient  documents,  no  evidence  is  before  the  public.  Nor 
is  there,  in  India  or  in  China  either,  moniimoital  evidence 
existing,  to  sustain  this  claim  to  high  antiquity  !  (See 
Bunsen,  Egypt's  Place,  &c.,  vol.  i.  pp.  241,  242.  See  Lep- 
sius, Chronologie  der  Egypter,  vol.  i.  pp.  3-8.     See  Cos- 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  373 

mos,  vol.  i.  pp.  114,  115,  and  note.     Ideler,  Handbuch 
der  Chronologie,  vol.  i.  pp.  93-231.) 

In  Egypt  the  case  is  different.  Monuments  do  there 
exist  in  great  numbers,  and  of  extreme  antiquity,  un- 
doubtedly. The  vast  Pyramids,  it  is  asserted  with  great 
confidence,  by  those  deemed  competent  to  judge  in  the 
case,  were  erected  before  the  time  of  Abraham.  If  this 
could  be  proved,  then  certainly  the  interval  between 
Abraham  and  Noah  must  have  been  much  longer  than 
we  have  been  accustomed  to  suppose :  for,  on  the  com' 
mon  computation,  there  was  not  sufficient  time  for  the 
multiplication  of  mankind,  the  growth  of  distinct  nations, 
and  the  advance  of  the  Egyptians  in  numbers,  wealth, 
civilization,  and  skill  in  the  fine  arts,  to  a  degree  such  as 
must  have  been  indispensable  in  a  people  who  could  build 
the  pyramids  of  Gizeh  ! 

To  settle  the  chronology  of  the  flood,  is  the  only  diffi- 
culty in  the  case :  for,  certain  it  is,  that  the  pyramids 
could  not  have  withstood  the  surging  waters  of  the  del- 
uge. Much  less  could  the  temples  and  the  vast  halls  of 
the  royal  palaces,  or  the  chambers  of  their  excavated 
tombs,  covered  with  hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  and  with 
paintings,  presenting  the  most  delicate  lines  and  the 
richest  tints  of  coloring  have  remained  as  they  still  are, 
in  all  their  freshness,  brilliant  as  if  executed  but  yesterday, 
had  the  waters  of  Noah's  deluge  rolled  over  the  valley 
of  the  Nile  since  these  wonderful  works  were  executed. 

So  near  as  Egypt  is  to  what  we  must  suppose  to  have 
been  the  the  primitive  seat  of  man's  abode,  even  a  par- 
tial deluge  arising  from  the  subsidence  of  that  primitive 
land,  must  have  sent  a  vast  wave  of  waters  sweeping 
temporarily  over  Egypt,  that  would  have  been  fatal  to 


374  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

the  whole  series  of  monumental  paintings  and  inscriptions. 
(Lyell,  Princ.  342  ;  Darwin's  Voy.  ii.  p.  133.)  The  prob- 
ability is  great,  that  somewhere,  as  yet  not  fully  de- 
tected, lies  an  error,  either  in  the  mode  of  interpreting 
the  hieroglyphic  records  in  Egypt,  or  in  the  method  of 
computing  the  several  reigns  and  dynasties  of  its  mon- 
archs. 

Already  several  errors  are  detected  in  the  interpreta- 
tion given  to  some  of  the  hieroglyphics,  by  men  of  high 
renown.  Moreover,  it  is  well  known  that  on  very  many 
of  the  monuments  themselves,  the  names  now  standing 
have  been  executed  over  previous  inscriptions,  effaced 
for  the  purpose  of  making  room  for  them.  Who  shall 
say  how  far  these  alterations  have  been  made,  where  now 
detection  is  difficult  ?  And  who  can  fail  to  perceive  how 
the  fact  of  these  substitutions  tends  to  throw  discredit  on 
the  whole  series  of  monumental  inscriptions,  and  to  involve 
their  historical  value  in  uncertainty?  Once  ascertained, 
as  it  now  is  beyond  dispute,  that  the  Pharaohs  allowed 
themselves  thus,  from  a  petty  vanity,  to  tamper  with  and 
to  alter  the  noblest  monuments*  of  their  predecessors, 
the  very  records  of  the  nation,  what  guarantee  can  we 
find  for  the  genuineness  of  even  those  tables  of  royal 
names,  those  lists  of  dynasties,  or  those  chronological 
marks  upon  which  our  mq^ern  Egyptologists  found  their 
most  plausible  arguments  for  the  vast  antiquity  of  the 
Pharaonic  empire  ? 

Besides,  there  is,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  an  in- 
herent improbability  in  this  claim  to  antiquity  for  Egypt. 

*  This  has  been  done  at  Medinet  Habou,  (see  Revne  des  Deux  Mondes, 
Dec.  1847,  p.  1028,)  at  Luxor,  (id.  p.  1010,)  and  in  many  other  places. 
(Id.  Jan.  1849,  p.  93.) 


THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL.  375 

It  would  present  an  anomaly  among  nations.  One 
solitary  nation,  existing  for  thousands  of  years,  with  the 
most  stupendous  works  of  art  ever  wrought  by  the  skill 
and  industry  of  man,  (works  which  to  this  day  have  never 
been  surpassed,)  scattered  profusely  over  their  whole 
territory,  white  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  without  excep- 
tion, was  occupied  by  scattered  tribes  of  barbarians,  to- 
tally uncivilized  !     It  is  utterly  incredible. 

A  radical  error  in  4he  Egyptian  chronology,  as  pre- 
sented to  the  public  in  all  the  splendid  works  on  Egypt 
that  are  now  bursting  on  the  astonished  world,  has 
from  the  first  been  suspected.  Somewhere  this  error 
must  be,  and  I  hope  yet  to  see  the  day  when  the  source 
of  that  error  shall  be  detected,  exposed,  and  acknowl- 
edged. 

Happy  am  I  to  be  able  to  add,  that  the  means  of  doing 
this  seem  to  be  now  brought  within  our  reach,  chiefly 
through  the  skilful  and  laborious  researches  of  Mr.  R. 
S.  Poole,  a  gentleman  of  talents  and  learning,  who  was 
brought  up  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  who  has  spent  many 
years  in  the  study  of  the  monuments,  and  who  has  ad- 
duced proofs  from  the  monuments  themselves  that  sev- 
eral of  the  dynasties  were  really  contemporaneous,  just 
as  the  learned  have  for  ages  past  supposed  would  prove 
to  be  the  case.  Mr.  Poole  has  discovered  on  the  monu- 
ments a  variety  of  astronomical  signs  and  records,  the  in- 
terpretation of  which  he  has  ascertained, — and  his  calcu- 
lations based  on  those  astronomical  records  confirm  the 
conclusions  he  deduces  from  other  sources, — all  going  to 
show,  that  the  whole  of  Egyptian  chronology,  when  un- 
derstood and  reduced  to  order,  is  entirely  consistent  with 
the  chronology  of  the  Bible. 


376  THE   DELUGE    UNIVERSAL.  ' 

As  an  instance.  On  several  monuments  Mr.  Poole 
found,  under  the  well-known  names  of  some  of  the  old 
Pharaohs,  records  of  this  kind  :  "  On  such  a  day,  of  such 

a  month,  in  such  a  year  of  the  reign  of  King ,  son 

of  the  Sun,  beloved  of  Amoun,  lord  of  the  two  worlds, 
&c.,  such  a  star  being  in  such  a  position  in  the  heavens, 
(here  all  the  points  are  distinctly  laid  down,)  happened 
such  an  event,  a  great  assembly,  &c.  &c."* 

Now  the  time  when  the  star  thus  named  occupied  the 
position  thus  designated,  is  easily  calculated :  and  the 
result  of  all  these  several  dates,  when  fixed  by  calcula- 
tion, falls  in  with,  and  is  corroborated  by,  the  evidence 
adduced,  in  various  ways,  from  a  great  number  of  the 
monuments.  But,  in  order  to  remove  all  grounds  of 
doubt,  Mr.  Poole  submitted  the  data  collected  from  the 
monuments,  and  on  which  he  had  founded  his  calcula- 
tions, to  Mr.  Airy,  the  Astronomer  Eoyal  at  Greenwich, 
England.  By  him  the  calculations  were  made  anew, 
and  subsequently  revised  again  and  again,  with  great 
care,  and  they  were  found  to  agree,  within  a  few  minutes, 
with  the  result  of  Mr.  Poole's  original  calculations.! 

But  so  complete  and  satisfactory  is  the  train  of  evidence 
adduced  byMr.Poole,thatSirJ.  G.Wilkinson,  one  of  the 
most  learned  of  living  men  in  all  that  relates  to  Egyp- 
tian archa)ology,  has  openly  published  his  entire  con- 
currence in  the  views  of  Mr.  Poole  on  Egyptian  chronol- 

*  See  Poole's  Horae  Egyptj^cao,  p.  73 ;  al|>o  hia  Preface,  p.  8 ;  his  In- 
troduction, p.  22 ;  and  ChampoUion's  Monuraens,  plate  116. 

t  See  Poole's  HorsD,  Preface,  p.  8 ;  Introduction,  p.  22 ;  Egyptiacae, 
p.  73  ;  and  ChampoUion's  Monumens,  plate  11.  The  accuracy  of  these 
results  will  probably  be  called  in  question  by  Mr.  Gliddon,  and  those 
who  arc  already  strongly  committed  in  the  support  of  the  high  antiquity 
advocated  by  Lepsius  and  Bunsen, 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  377 

ogy,  and  his  conviction  of  the  satisfactory  character  of 
the  evidence  that  gentleman  has  drawn  from  the  monu- 
ments.    (See  his  Architecture  of  Egypt.) 

That  question  may  now  be  regarded  as  virtually  set- 
tled. Egypt^  with  all  her  splendid  monuments^  is  found  a 
witness  to  the  truth  of  the  Bible,  and  to  the  correctness  of  the 
Mosaic  chronology. 

After  a  thorough  and  patient  examination  of  the  whole 
subject,  in  all  its  most  important  bearings,  we  find  no 
reason  from  anything  advanced,  either  on  the  ground 
of  alleged  absurdities  in  the  narrative  itself,  nor  yet  in 
difficulties  raised  on  scientific  grounds,  nor  yet  from  the 
claims  advanced  by  certain  oriental  nations  to  an  an- 
tiquity inconsistent  with  the  universality,  if  not  also  with 
the  very  fact,  of  a  deluge  in  the  days  of  ISToah,  to  doubt 
the  perfect  truth  of  the  Mosaic  record  on  that  point,  and 
its  accuracy  in  every  particular.^  This  venerable  record 
teaches  us  that  the  deluge  was  literally  universal,  cover- 
ing the  entire  surface  of  the  globe,  so  far,  at  least,  as  ani- 
mal life  had  then  spread. 

This  fearful  catastrophe  was  produced,  as  I  cannot  but 
suppose,  by  an  elevation  of  the  bed  of  the  antediluvian 
oceans,  which  elevated  beds  constitute  what  is  now  land 
on  our  globe,  and  by  the  simultaneous  sinkingf  of  the 
primeval  continents,  which  then  became,  and  still  con- 

*  The  learned  Adrien  Balbo  says :  "  No  monument,  either  historical 
or  astronomical,  has  yet  been  able  to  prove  the  books  of  Moses  false ; 
but  with  them,  on  the  contrary,  agree,  in  the  most  remarkable  manner, 
the  results  obtained  by  the  most  learned  philologues,  and  the  profound- 
est  geometricians."  (Atlas  Ethnographique  du  Globe.  Mappemonde, 
Eth.  1.) 

t  On  the  subsidence  of  continents,  see  Darwin's  Voyage  of  a  Natural- 
ist, vol.  ii.  pp.  262,  263.  .       . 


'TiiriTBiisiTr 


878  THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL. 

tinue  to  be,  the  bed  of  the  sea.  Hence  it  is  that  no  re- 
mains of  antediluvian  man,  or  of  his  works,  have  yet 
been  discovered  among  geological  strata. 

The  argument  adduced  to  show,  that  man  was  not  a 
denizen  of  the  earth  in  the  period  when  the  older  strata 
were  deposited,  because  no  remains  of  man  or  of  his 
works  are  found  among  the  fossils  of  those  strata,  is 
equally  in  point  to  show  that  the  present  continents  could 
not  have  been  the  seat  of  man's  abode,  when,  in  Noah's 
day,  the  deluge  covered  the  whole  earth. 

"  Our  bones,"  says  an  eloquent  writer,  (Richardson, 
pp.  90,  91,)  "  composed  of  the  same  materials  as  those 
of  the  animal  tribes,  are  equally  capable  of  being  kept 
from  destruction.  The  same  battle-field  has  preserved 
the  remains  of  the  horse  and  his  rider." 

But  had  the  present  lands  been  the  seat  of  man's  abode 
when  the  deluge  swept  over  the  globe,  "his  skeleton, 
or  the  mere  fragments  of  his  osseous  structure,  would 
have  constituted  the  least  of  those  relics  which  he  would 
have  bequeathed  to  the  soil  of  which  he  was  an  inhabi- 
tant. We  should  have  discovered  his  mighty  and  majes- 
tic works,  which  so  far  transcend,  in  duration,  his  own 
ephemeral  existence.  We  should  have  found  his  cities 
and  his  structures,  overwhelmed  in  the  waters  of  the  del- 
uge ;  his  majestic  pyramids  sunk  in  the  bed  of  ancient 
rivers ;  his  mountain  temples  hewn  in  the  solid  rock ;" 
his  bridges  of  stone,  or  the  tombs  he  had  erected  over 
his  loved  ones.  We  should  have  found  (for  even  a  cen- 
tury ago  Bishop  Berkeley  expressed  a  similar  thought) 
"  his  weapons  of  war,  his  implements  of  agriculture,  his 
coins,  his  medals,  his  cameos,  intaglios,  and  vases." 

The  fact,  therefore,  that  nothing  of  all  this  has  been 


THE  DELUGE   UNIVERSAL.  879 

found  in  the  vast  multitude  of  aqueous  deposits  brought 
to  light,  seems  to  show  conclusively,  we  tread  not  the 
soil  trodden  by  antediluvian  man ;  that  soil  lies  now,  in 
all  probability,  deeply  submerged  beneath  the  rolling  bil- 
lows of  the  ocean  ! 

It  may^  however,  yet  happen,  and  that,  too,  possibly 
at  no  very  distant  day,  that  a  renewed  alteration  in  the 
relative  position  of  land  and  sea,  even  to  a  limited  extent, 
shall  heave  up  the  site  of  antediluvian  cities ;  or,  volcanic 
throes  may  yet  protrude  some  battlefield  of  Nimrod; 
force  up  to  the  light  some  vast  idol-temple  of  tjie  wicked 
^'' sons  ofmen^''  some  cemetery  of  the  ^''giants  that  were  on 
t/ie  earth  in  those  days^^^  and  present  to  the  amazed  geolo- 
gist of  the  future,  the  warrior  clad  in  mail,  the  priest  in 
his  sacerdotal  garb,  censer  in  hand,  the  huge  skeleton  of 
some  antediluvian  chieftain-giant,  in  his  rocky  sarcopha- 
gus, covered  with  mysterious  inscriptions,  with  the  jew- 
elled tiara  yet  encircling  his  skull,  and  the  gem-studded 
breast-plate  still  overlying  the  arched  ribs,  proclaiming 
the  mighty  man,  one  of  those  "  which  were  ofold^  men  of 
renown,  (Gen.  vi.  4.)  Or  these  future  upheavals  may  yet 
lay  bare  to  the  gaze  of  the  indefatigable  votaries  of  sci- 
ence amon^  the  sons  of  our  sons'  sons,  the  virgin  in  her 
bridal  attire,  the  shepherd  surrounded  by  his  flocks,  the 
mother  still  clasping  her  fossil  babe,  thg  husbandman, 
plough  in  hand  behind  his  oxen,  just  as  they  were  im- 
bedded in  the  mass  of  mountain  fragments,  swept  over 
their  sinking  lands  by  the  advancing  ocean-floods,  when 
the  ^''fountains  of  the  great  deep  were  broken  up;"  a  whole  gal- 
lery of  antediluvian  human  fossils,  deriionstrating  to  the 
most  skeptical  among  the  scientific  of  future  ages,  the 
truth  of  the  wonderful  old  record :  "  Every  living  sub- 


380  THE  DELUGE  UNIVERSAL. 

stance  was  destroyed  which  was  upon  the  face  of  the  ground^ 
both  man  and  cattle^  and  the  creeping  Oiings^  and  the  fowls  of 
the  heavens;  and  they  were  destroyed  from  the  earOi ;  and 
Noah  only  was  left  alive^  and  they  that  were  with  him  in  (he 
arhr    Amen. 


By  the  same  mail  which  brought  for  correction  the  proof-sheets  of  the 
Lectures  on  the  Deluge,  came  also  the  April  number  of  the  Theological 
and  Literary  Journal,  containing  a  very  able  and  ingenious  paper  by  the 
editor  of  the  Journal,  David  N.  Lord,  on  the  Age  of  the  Earth.  That 
article  the  a^ithor  of  these  pages  has  twice  read  with  great  care  and  with 
deep  interestT  The  editor  takes  bold  ground,  and  he  sustains  it  with 
great  ingenuity.  He  recognizes  unhesitatingly  the  great  facts  presented 
in  geological  science,  but  shows  clearly  that  the  doctrines  thereon  found- 
ed by  geologists  are  not  denianstraicd  Irutks,  but  merely  and  simply  infer- 
ences, based  in  reality  on  an  unwarranted  assumption,  employed  in  their 
mode  of  reasoning.  "Whatever  the  probability  of  the  deductions  drawn 
from  geological  facts,  they  cannot,  the  editor  contends,  be  counted  as 
ascertained  truths,  before  which  the  teachings  of  Moses  must  give  way. 
This  point  the  editor  presents  in  a  strong  light. 

To  all  his  positions  the  writer  of  these  pages  cannot  subscribe :  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  several  stages  in  the  six  days'  creation,  as  laid  down 
by  the  editor,  he  cannot  fully  agree.  These,  however,  are  minor  points. 
The  article  in  question  fairly  shows  that  however  a  knowledge  of  the 
fads  of  geology  may  modify  our  views  of  the  import  of  the  Mosaic  record 
in  some  particulars,  the  teachers  of  geologic  science  have  t^  demonstrated 
system  of  cosmogony  which  can,  by  the  remotest  possibility,  compete  in 
value  with  the  teachings  of  Moses. 

There  is  a  noble  passage  in  that  article  (see  pages  543,  644)  illustrative 
of  the  position  laid  down,  p.  544,  "  The  whole  Bible,  as  a  revelation,  stands 
or  Jails  vrith  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis"  That  passage  will  be  found  in 
the  appendix  to  this  work. 


LECTUKE    XI. 

DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD— ITS  ORIGIN  AND 
ITS  EXTENT. 

Gen.  iii.  19, — "  Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return." 

The  deed  was  done,  tlie  sin  was  wrought,  the  fall  of 
man,  in  the  first  human  pair,  was  accomplished.  Adam, 
our  common  progenitor,  had  trampled  under  foot  his 
Maker's  command ;  he  had  plucked  and  eaten  of  the  for- 
bidden fruit,  and  by  that  one  act,  he  involved  his  entire 
posterity  in  moral  degradation  and  ruin,  and  placed  them 
in  imminent  peril :  for,  this  fatal  act  it  was,  that  "  brought 
death  into  the  world  and  all  our  woP^ 

The  favor  of  heaven  was  now  lost,  and  ere  long,  the 
voice  of  God  himself  pronounced  the  doom  :  "  Dust  thou 
art^  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return^ 

The  origin  and  extent  of  death  among  the  works  of  God  on 
eojrth^  may,  then,  well  claim  our  attention. 

The  origin  of  death ^  is,  in  the  Bible,  distinctly  and  re- 
peatedly ascribed  to  the  sin  of  man.  "  By  one  man,  sin  en- 
tered into  the  ivorld^  and  death  by  sin^^^  (Rom.  v.  12  ;)  "  The 
wages  of  sin  is  death,^^  (Rom.  vi.  23.) 

Whatever  might  have  been  included  in  the  original 
commination  uttered  to  deter  Adam  from  transgression, 
^^  In  the  day  tliou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die,^^  certain 


382  DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

it  is  that,  the  act  of  transgression  being  accomplished, 
there  was  pronounced  on  sinning  man,  the  doom  which 
constitutes  the  theme  of  this  discourse  :  "  Dust  thou  art^ 
and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return  /" 

It  is,  then,  clearly  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible,  that  to 
maji,  death  is  tlie  fruit  of  sin  I 

Had  man  remained  sinless,  he  would  not  only  have 
continued  to  maintain  uninterrupted  communion  with 
the  pure  Spirit,  his  glorious  Creator,  but  his  very  body 
would  have  been  exempt  from  decay  and  death. 

What  special  arrangement  would  have  been  needed  to 
secure  this  end,  we  cannot  pretend  to  decide :  but  that 
so  it  would  have  been,  is  beyond  question. 

All  things  necessary  to  secure  such  results,  could  and 
would  have  been  provided  by  the  Almighty  Creator:  and 
probably,  after  a  suitable  period  passed  by  each  individ- 
ual of  the  race,  in  probation  on  earth,  each  one,  without 
death,  (and,  in  a  mode  somewhat  analogous  to  that  su- 
pernatural transformation  which,  as  the  apostle  tells  us, 
will  hereafter,  at  the  sound  of  the  last  trumpet,  be  effected 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  on  the  bodies  of  Christ's  be- 
lieving people  who  may  be  living  when  He  comes  to 
judgment,  (see  1  Cor.  xv.  52,)  would  have  been  prepared 
for  removal  to  a  higher  state  of  existence,  and  to  larger 
enjoyments,  in  another  and  a  brighter  world.  We  must 
suppose  such  probationary  term,  and  subsequent  removal 
to  another  world,  or  another  scene  of  action,  because,  else, 
the  natural  increase  of  th^  human  family  would,  in  time, 
have  filled  the  earth  to  overflowing;  sustenance  must 
then  have  failed ;  and  hence  there  would  seem  to  have 
arisen  a  necessity  for  death,  where,  by  the  very  terms  of 
the  supposition,  death  were  impossible. 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.  883 

But,  all  speculation  as  to  what  might  have  been  the 
condition  of  man,  had  he  not  sinned,  is  now  fruitless. 
Sin  he  did,  and  on  him  fell  the  curse,  one  of  whose  re- 
sults is,  the  cessation  of  his  animal  life,  and  the  return  of 
his  body  to  its  original  constituent  elements.  Dust  thou 
art^  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return. 

This  sentence  of  mortality  to  man,  we  see  continually 
carried  into  execution.  Every  day  we  live,  the  spectacle 
is  presented,  of  death  entering  the  abodes  of  men,  and 
selecting  his  victims  from  among  the  rich  and  the  poor, 
the  young  and  the  old,  the  bond  and  the  free. 

The  active  and  the  vigorous,  sometimes  suddenly  fall 
before  the  destroyer:  and  sometimes,  insidious  disease 
slowly,  unsuspected,  yet  certainly,  saps  the  strength, 
wastes  the  energies,  and  ends  the  life  that  ha'd  given 
promise  of  long  and  happy  duration.  One  day,  the  old 
man,  full  of  years,  calmly  sinks  to  his  long  rest :  another, 
the  little  infant,  after  a  few  days  of  precarious  life,  or 
after  a  few  months  of  bright  promise,  sickens,  droops, 
and  dies !  Another  day,  the  meridian  of  life  is  suddenly 
overcast,  and  the  sun  of  existence  sets  at  noonday.  Nor 
varied  possessions,  nor  weighty  business,  nor  the  pressing 
claims  of  a  rising  family,  can  delay  the  hour,  nor  avert 
the  blow.  It  hus  been  seen,  too,  that  the  young  bride  in 
her  loveliness,  grows  suddenly  pale,  amid  her  bright 
smiles,  and  sinks,  in  the  very  arms  of  her  enamored  hus- 
band, who  finds,  to  his  dismay,  that  what  he  had  loved 
so  fondly,  was  but  a  lump  of  breathing  clay.  At  another 
time  we  see  the  mother,  gazing  with  speechless  agony  on 
the  surrounding  group  of  her  little  ones,  for  she  knows 
that  she  must  leave  them  to  the  care  of  others ;  she  feels 
that  she  is  dying ;  and  her  fast  dimming  eyes,  strain  in 


^ 

■*.' 


884      DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

their  lingering. gaze,  at  the  loved  ones,  dearer  to  her  than 
life !  Oh  I  how  deep,  how  far-reaching,  and  how  varied 
are  the  influences  flowing  from  that  one  dread  sentence, 
"  Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return  /" 

The  young  man,  who  has  nobly  struggled  with  a  thou- 
sand difficulties,  to  fit  himself  for  action  in  life,  to  store 
his  mind  with  knowledge,  and  to  discipline  and  train  his 
powers  for  the  hard  contest  with  competitors  for  honor, 
and  usefulness,  and  distinction,  and  who  was  just  begin- 
ning to  feel  his  task  almost  done,  and  to  gain  confidence 
in  his  resources,  and  in  his  ability  to  use  them  with  ef- 
fect, finds,  alas  !  that  the  task  of  preparation  for  life^  has 
exhausted  the  very  energies  of  his  life,  and  has  planted 
deep  within  his  breast,  the  seeds  of  early  death :  and 
now,  the  burning  thirst,  and  the  hacking  cough,  and  the 
hectic  glow,  and  the  wasting  flesh,  and  the  exhausting 
night-sweats,  forbid  the  hope  of  honor,  of  distinction,  of 
wealth,  and  of  his  promised  bride,  and  of  the  calm  joys  of 
domestic  life,  and  bid  him  prepare  to  lie  down  in  the  grave^ 
and  make  his  bed  with  worms;  for  all,  remind  him, 
"  Dust  thou  artj  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return  /" 

It  is  an  affecting  thought  for  each  of  us  to  contemplate, 
— go  where  we  may,  do  what  we  may,  and  struggle  and  toil 
and  labor  as  we  may,  we  are  moving  ever  onwards  to  the 
grave.  To  us  the  hour  may  be  near,  or  it  may  be  distant, 
but  its  approach  is  constant,  its  coming  certain  and  inev- 
itable I  Like  the  crew  of  a  foundering  ship  in  mid-ocean, 
swept  from  her  decks  by  the  surging  bijlows :  some  strug- 
gle a  longer,  some  a  shorter  time  upon  the  surface,  but 
all,  eventually,  sink  in  the  deep. 

•But,  if  this  arrangement  of  God's  providence  has  its 
dark  side,  in  the  disappointment  of  hopes,  the  blasting 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.  385 

of  bright  prospects,  in  the  pains  and  sorrows  of  a  sick- 
bed, and  in  the  deep  anxieties  attending  the  prospect  of 
leaving,  and  leaving,  perhaps,  unprovided  for,  those  who 
are  unutterably  dear  to  us,  it  has  also  its  redeeming  in- 
fluences. 

If  the  hour  of  death  is  uncertain,  and  if  its  blow  falls 
often  suddenly  as  well  as  unexpectedly,  this  fact  is  known, 
and  it  peals  its  impressive  warning  to  all  and  to  each, 
Be  ready  to  meet  the  summojis. 

God  might  have  planted  an  instinct  in  man's  bosom 
like  that  in  many  species  of  animals,  which  enables  them 
to  discern  the  tokens  of  coming  death,  and  leads  them  to 
retire,  and  hide  away  in  some  obscure  retreat,  there  to 
die  unseen  and  unnoticed."^  Instead  of  that,  God  has 
made  death,  and  its  preliminaries  in  man,  the  means  of 
calling  into  action  some  of  the  deepest  and  tenderest 
sympathies  of  our  nature.  The  tokens  of  declining 
health  awaken  these  sympathies  in  the  breasts  of  friends, 
and  kindred,  and  the  result  is,  that  the  kind  services  and 
loving  attentions  of  those  around  the  sufferer,  often 
soothe  the  agonies  of  dissolution,  cheer  the  approach  to 
the  grave,  and  almost  strip  death  itself  of  its  terrors: 
while,  to  those  sympathizing  friends  themselves,  the  emo- 
tions thus  awakened,  and  the  reflections  thereby  aroused, 
are  always  salutary,  and  sometimes  they  prove  big  with 
blessings  which  eternity  alone  can  estimate.  By  such 
means,  many  a  one  has  been  led  to  profound  reflection 
and  to  true  piety.  Moreover,  on  the  aspect  of  society^  this 
arrangement  produces  a  decided  effect.     By  the  opera- 

*  See  ]\Ir.  Darwin's  account  of  the  curious  habits  of  the  guanaco  or 
wild  llama  of  Patagonia.    (Voyage  of  a  Naturalist,  vol.  i.  pp.  212,  213.) 

17 


386  DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

tion  of  this  law  of  mortality,  society  is  constantly  chang- 
ing, and  constantly  becoming  renewed. 

Instead  of  one  unvarying  mass  of  individuals,  to  whom 
every  object  has  been  long  familiar,  and  with  whom 
every  enjoyment  has  long  since  waned,  and  almost  ex- 
pired, society  is  now  receiving  constant  accessions  of 
young  life,  and  of  vigorous  capacity  for  happiness,  such 
as  the  world  has  to  furnish.  Human  society  is  thus,  ever 
youthful,  ever  joyous. 

Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that,  so  far  as  mere  animal  en- 
joyment is  concerned,  the  operation  of  this  law  of  death, 
making  room  for  constant  accessions  of  young  life,  occa- 
sions a  far  greater  amount  of  enjoyment  in  the  world, 
than  there  could  be,  were  death  not  busy. 

And  yet  all  this  death  is  the  fruit  of  sin.  It  was  sin 
that  called  forth  the  declaration,  ^^  Dust  tJwu  art,  and  unto 
ditst  shalt  ihxm  return^ 

Another  illustration  this,  of  the  grand  truth,  that  the 
all-embracing  benevolence  of  God  hrings  good  out  of  evil. 
But  there  is  another  point  that  here  demands  attention, 
viz.,  the  extent  to  ivhich  this  doom  applies. 

All  men,  the  entire  human  family  without  exception, 
are  subjected  to  this  doom,  of  death,  and  a  return  of  dust 
to  dust,  as  the  fruit  of  sin :  those  without  revelation,  as 
well  as  those  having  it.  Infants  no  less  than  adults,  die. 
They  are,  from  the  first  breath  of  life  drawn,  members 
of  the  family  of  man,  and  as  such,  they  die.  This  is  the 
fruit  of  the  first  sin  of  Adam,  irrespective  of  personal 
guilt.  Facts  prove  this;  for  little  infants,  that  never 
sinned,  do  yet  die.  Death  does  still  reign  ove)'  them  that 
have  not  sinned,  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's  transgression. 

But  further  still,  death  reigns  over  the  brutes,  and  over  the 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.      387 

whole  of  the  irrational  animal  creation :  and  the  inquiry 
forces  itself  upon  us,  Is  this  death^  in  the  irrational  animal 
kingdom^  the  result  also  of  AdarrHs  sin? 

Not  many  years  since,  and  few  divines  could  have 
been  found,  who  would  not  have  answered,  unhesita- 
tingly, in  the  affirmative !  And,  in  proof  of  their  opinion, 
they  would  have  quoted  such  passages  of  Scripture,  as 
these,  ''^  By  man  came  death  J"*  ''''By  one  man  sin  entered 
into  the  world^  and  death  by  sin  ;"  and  again,  ''  The  creature 
was  made  subject  to  vanity,  not  willingly,  (i.  e.  not  of  them- 
selves,) but  by  reason  of  him  that  hath  subjected  the  sameJ'^ 
(Rom.  viii.)  Now  is  this  really  so  ?  Does  death  prevail 
among  irrational  animals,  as  well  as  among  men,  only 
because  Adam  sinned  ?     Let  us  examine  this  point. 

If  such  is  indeed  the  case,  then,  before  Adam  fell,  death 
must  have  been  unknown,  and  if  so,  then  lions,  tigers, 
and  all  other  carnivorous  animals  must  have  lived  on 
other  food,  not  on  flesh. 

But  no  other  materials  does  our  globe  furnish,  that 
could  serve  as  food  to  the  brute  creation,  without  de- 
struction to  animal  life.  The  grass  that  springs  thickly 
on  the  soil,,  the  foliage  that  adorns  the  trees  of  the  forest 
— aye,  every  drop  of  water  with  which  the  panting  hart 
quenches  her  thirst — teems  with  living  occupants ;  so  that 
neither  can  vegetable  food  be  taken,  nor  the  pure  water 
be  quaffed  from  the  broad  river,  or  at  the  mountain 
streamlet,  without  the  death  of  myriads  of  living  crea- 
tures at  every  meal,  and  at  every  draught.  The  ox 
grazing  in  the  meadows,  the  timid  sheep  nibbling  the 
short,  sweet  herbage  clothing  the  hill-side,  the  wild  cha- 
mois cropping  the  stunted  shrubs  that  cling  to  the  loftiest 
summits  of  the  mountain  crags,  the  bright  songsters  of 


888  DEATH  AMONG  THE   WORKS  OF  GOD. 

the  grove  slaking  their  thirst  from  the  morning  dew,  yea 
the  very  humming-bird,  sipping  the  nectar  treasured  in 
the  fragrant  flower-cup — all,  in  their  simplest  meal,  and 
in  their  purest  draught,  inflict  a  thousand  death-pangs, 
where  the  tiger,  for  his  bloodiest  meal,  destroys  one 
life! 

Constituted  as  things  now  are,  millions  of  deaths  must 
occur  upon  this  globe,  every  day  and  every  hour,  even 
were  every  animal  now  carnivorous,  confined  to  vegetable 
food  exclusively. 

But  further  still :  the  anatomical  structure  of  each  animal 
detei'mines  the  nature  of  its  food^  and  the  habits  of  its  life. 
In  vegetable-eating  animals  the  stomach  must  be  adapted 
to  receive  and  to  digest  vegetable  substances.  The  length 
of  the  neck,  the  size  and  position  of  the  muscles  of  the 
neck,  the  chest,  and  the  legs,  must  be  adapted  to  grazing 
on  the  ground,  browsing  among  the  bushes,  or  reaching 
up  among  the  tender  twigs  of  the  loftiest  shrubbery  and 
trees.  The  form  of  the  mouth,  the  lips,  the  tongue, 
must  be  adapted  to  lay  hold  of  and  to  crop ;  and  the 
structure  of  the  teeth  must  be  such  as  to  furnish  the 
means  of  duly  masticating  this  herbage  or  mass  of  twigs, 
to  prepare  it  for  reception  in  the  stomach  and  digestion 
there.  Such  structure  will  answer  for  a  vegetable-eating 
animal,  and  for  none  other. 

A  carnivorous  animal  must  have  a  stomach  adapted  to 
digest  fresh  flesh.  It  must  have  claws  to  seize,  a  sight 
quick  to  detect,  instincts  inciting  it  to  pursue,  or  to  sur- 
prise by  stealth,  its  living  prey.  Moreover,  the  muscles 
of  the  jaw,  the  head,  the  neck,  the  chest,  must  be  such 
as  to  give  strength  and  agility  for  the  pursuit,  the  cap- 
ture, the  slaying,  and  rending  of  the  victim-prey  :  whilst 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.      389 

the  teeth  must  be  adapted  to  tear  and  to  masticate  the 
flesh,  and  often  the  bones,  too,  of  its  victim,  for  subse- 
quent digestion  in  the  stomach. 

A  carnivorous  animal  could  not  live  on  herbage,  nor 
an  herbivorous  animal  on  flesh.  Some  few  animals  (e.  g, 
man)  are  omnivorous,  and  can  live  on  vegetable  or  on 
an  animal  diet,  although  designed  (as  the  structure  of 
the  teeth  proves)  to  subsist  on  food  consisting  of  a  mix- 
ture of  both.  Occasionally,  it  is  true,  some  carnivorous 
animals  have,  by  artificial  means,  been  brought  to  sub- 
sist, for  a  time,  on  vegetable  food  only.  But  these  ex- 
ceptions, few  in  number  and  unnatural  in  their  nature, 
invalidate  not  the  rule.  Beasts  and  birds  of  prey  could 
not  subsist,  even  for  a  few  days,  without  feeding  on  the 
bodies  of  fresh-slain  animals. 

Are  we,  then,  to  suppose,  that  before  Adam  sinned, 
lions,  tigers,  eagles,  and  vultures  fed,  like  oxen,  sheep, 
and  sparrows,  on  herbage,  fruits,  and  seeds?  It  is  ut- 
terly incredible — it  was  not  possible  !  Was,  then,  their 
anatomical  structure  different  before  man  fell  ?  Where  is 
the  evidence  of  it  ?  Of  any  such  alteration  in  the  struc- 
ture and  in  the  animal  functions  of  the  brute  creation, 
consequent  on  the  fall,  as  this  supposition  implies,  there 
is  not  a  particle  of  evidence,  nor,  indeed,  the  slightest 
probability. 

Were  such  change  of  structure  in  the  brute  creation 
admitted,  transforming  into  carnivorous  the  birds,  and 
beasts,  and  reptiles,  and  fishes  that  are  now  such,  although 
their  previous  and  original  organization  was  that  of  her- 
bivorous animals,  it  would  be  equivalent  to  maintaining 
that  creation  was  not  completed,  when  God  pronounced 
it  all  very  good.     For,  in  that  case,  the  sin  of  Adam  was 


BOO  DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

needed  to  render  the  animal  creation  complete,  on  a  plan 
that  should  endure :  and  till  that  sin  was  committed,  a 
great  number  of  creatures,  of  peculiar  organization, 
which  now  constitute  a  large  proportion  of  the  animal 
creation,  were  not  produced,  and  they  could  not  be  pro- 
duced with  their  proper  organization  perfected,  until  man 
had  sinned.     The  very  idea  is  absurd  ! 

Moreover,  the  end  aimed  at,  in  such  a  supposition,  viz., 
the  deferring  of  death  among  God's  creatures,  until  it 
should  be  brought  in  as  the  consequence  of  Adam's  sin, 
could  not  by  it  be  gained  ;  because  every  meal  made,  by 
the  ox  in  the  meadow,  and  by  the  birds  among  the  fruits, 
must  necessarily  entail  death  on  myriads  of  insects  and 
animalcula) ;  unless  you  suppose  Adam  to  have  sinned, 
and  the  penalty  of  death  to  have  been  pronounced  and 
inflicted  as  its  consequence,  instantaneously  after  man  was 
created ;  and  before  either  man,  or  any  other  living  crea- 
ture, had  had  time  to  take,  or  had  felt  the  need  of  taking, 
any  nourishment  by  food.  But  this  supposition  is  hardly 
less  absurd  than  the  former.  It  implies,  moreover,  this 
further  absurdity,  that  whole  classes  of  animals,  made  to 
live  on  animal  food,  and  on  none  other,  must  wait  for 
their  first  meal,  till  man  had  sinned.  And  yet,  man  was 
forbidden  to  sin,  under  the  heaviest  conceivable  penalty. 
If  man  did  not  sin,  the  brute  creation  could  not  eat :  but 
without  food  they  could  not  live ;  neither  could  they  die, 
for  no  death  could  enter  this  world,  until  Adam  had  dis- 
obeyed his  Maker's  command,  and  sinned.  To  such  ab- 
surdities are  we  driven  by  interpreting  literally,  and  as 
of  universal  application,  the  doctrine  that  death  could 
not  enter  this  world,  but  as  a  part  of  the  penalty  of 
Adam's  sin,  and  that  no  death  took  place,  even  in  the 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WOKKS  OF  GOD.  391 

inferior  animal  creation,  until  after  the  fall  of  Adam  by 
sin  * 

But,  we  have  not  only  cogent  reasoning^  we  have  also  the 
incontrovertible  evidence  of  facts  to  show  that  death  did  take 
'place  on  this  earth  not  only  before  Adam  sinned^  but  countless 
ages,  also,  before  man  was  created,  and  before  this  globe 
was  fitted  to  receive  man  as  its  occupant. 

It  is  well  known  to  all,  that,  among  all  competent 
judges,  the  doctrine  is  now  universally  admitted  as  true, 
that  the  material  substance  of  our  globe  was  brought 
into  existence  in  the  beginning^  which  beginning  may  have 
been  countless  ages  before  the  earth  exhibited  that  ap- 
pearance of  a  chaotic  mass,  over  which  the  Spirit  of  God 
brooded,  reducing  it  to  order  and  beauty  for  the  recep- 
tion of  man,  then  about  to  be  created  :  that  during  this 
immense  interval  the  surface  of  our  earth  was  subjected 
to  many  and  great  changes :  that  it  was  successively  oc- 
cupied by  many  different  systems  of  animal  and  vegeta- 
ble races,  that  were  made  to  live  on  its  surface,  and  were 
successively  destroyed  by  great  convulsions  of  the  crust 
of  the  earth ;  such  as,  the  submersion  of  lands,  the  up- 
heaval of  beds  of  seas,  again  and  again :  by  which  means, 
the  remains  of  those  former  animal  tribes,  and  vegetable 
races,  were  imbedded  in  the  soil,  and  became  frequently 
indurated  in  the  solid  rock,  lying  now  in  successive  strata, 
or  layers,  one  above  another.  In  many  countries,  other 
and  later  convulsions  of  nature  have  upheaved  these 

*  Dr.  Hitchcock  has  well  observed,  "  It  would  require  an  entirely 
different  system  in  nature  from  the  present,  in  order  to  exclude  death 
from  the  world.  To  the  existing  system  death  is  as  essential  as  gravita- 
tion, and  apparently  just  as  much  a  law  of  nature."  (Relig.  of  Geol.  pp. 
77,  78.) 


392  DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

several  layers  of  rock,  that  inclose  in  their  very  siib- 
stance  the  distinct  forms,  the  actual  remains  of  these 
several  successive  races  of  animals  and  plants ;  quadru- 
peds, reptiles,  fishes,  birds,  insects,  flowers,  ferns  and 
trees,  seeds  and  fruits.  Such,  moreover,  are  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  that  we  can,  by  evidence  perfectly 
conclusive,  not  only  ascertain  that  these  several  races 
rvere  successive,  one  race  existing  after  the  other  had 
ceased  to  exist ;  but  we  can  also  determine,  with  abso- 
lute precision,  the  very  order  of  succession,  and  conse- 
quently, the  relative  age  of  these  several  successive  races 
of  now  extinct  animals  and  plants. 

In  some  of  these  rocky  strata,  which  present  the  remains 
of  animals  that  lived  and  perished,  unquestionably,  many 
ages  before  man  was  created  on  earth,  have  been  found 
the  skeletons  of  gigantic  animals,  formed  somewhat  like 
lizards ;  and  under  the  ribs  of  these  monstrous  reptiles, 
their  stomachs  are  still  found,  and  found  yet  containing 
the  more  solid  relics  of  the  food  on  which  they  had 
lived :  and  among  these  relics  of  food,  are  the  bones  and 
the  scales  of  fishes ;  and  these  relics  show,  in  some  in- 
stances, marks  left  by  the  action  of  the  teeth  of  the  reptile 
that  had  devoured  them.  Here,  then,  the  existence  of 
these  skeletons^  and  of  other  animal  remains  innumerable, 
is  itself  proof,  that  death  was  busy  at  his  appropriate 
work,  on  the  occupants  of  this  earth,  long  before  man 
sinned,  or  had  a  being.  These  relics  also,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  they  are  found,  show  further,  that 
long,  long  ere  the  fall  of  Adam,  animals  roaming  o'er  this 
earth,  obtained  their  food  by  preying  upon  and  devour- 
ing one  another !  Untold  thousands  of  years  before  the 
adjustment  of  this  earth  for  the  human  race,  may  that 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.  393 

gigantic  Saurian  have  fnade  his  meal,  bj  devouring  the 
fish,  whose  relics  we  can,  even  now,  see  in  his  stomach, 
disinterred  from  the  rocky  stratum,  wherein,  at  his  death, 
he  was  deposited. 

Further  still ;  such  animal  remains  are  not  only  found 
imbedded  in  hard  rocks,  but  they  often  constitute  the 
chief  substance  of  those  rocks.  You  may  oft  see  vast 
masses  of  such  fossil-bearing  rock,  in  the  very  places 
where  the  convulsion  of  nature  which  destroyed  the  en- 
tire animal  system,  of  which  the  creatures  they  now  in- 
close constituted  a  part,  originally  left  them.  And  you 
may  see  specimens  of  such  rock,  filled  with  the  remains 
of  extinct  animals,  in  every  cabinet  collected  by  the  curi- 
ous. The  limestone  of  Alabama,  and  its  prairies,  abounds 
with  such  fossil  remains. 

If  my  recollection  of  observations  made  there  during 
a  hasty  visit  in  May,  1832,  be  correct,  at  Trenton  Falls, 
on  Canada  Creek,  near  Utica,  N.  Y.,  the  rock  over  which 
the  water  dashes,  is  little  else  than  a  beautiful  conglom- 
erate of  animal  remains. 

At  Louisville,  Kentucky,  on  the  Ohio ;  and  in  the  rock 
of  the  hills  stretching  like  an  amphitheatre  around  the 
beautiful  town  of  Huntsville,  in  North  Alabama,  abun- 
dant fossil  remains  may  be  observed,  entering  largely 
into  the  composition  of  the  rock. 

In  fact,  every  fossiliferous  stratum  yet  brought  to  light 
by  geologists,  has  its  own  characteristic  animal  remains, 
existing  in  that  peculiar  stratum,  and  no  others.  While, 
again,  other  fossil  remains  occur  in  more  than  one  of 
these  strata. 

Moreover,  each  such  stratum,  wherever  found,  holds 
always  the  same  relative  position  to  the  other  strata, 

17* 


394      DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

more  ancient  or  more  recent.  But,  as  a  late  writer  has 
well  observed,  (see  Dr.  J.  P.  Smith's  Scripture  and  Ge- 
ology, Supplement,  Note  A,  pp.  255,  256^  geology  fur- 
nishes cases  of  animal  life  extinguished  upon  a  scale 
immensely  large,  by  other  processes  than  that  of  being 
devoted  to  furnish  nutriment  to  other  living  bodies. 

The  polishing  stone  called  tripoli^  is  now  ascertained  to 
be,  not  composed,  as  once  was  thought,  merely  of  sand 
and  clay  combined,  (siliceo-argillaceous,)  but  a  congeries, 
a  vast  mass  of  microscopic,  many -chambered  shells :  and 
there  are  immense  rocks  of  nummulite  limestone,  and 
vast  heaps  of  the  shell  (milliola)  compressed  into  solid 
masses. 

It  has  also  been  discovered  (by  Mr.  Lonsdale)  that 
common  chalk  contains,  nay,  it  may  be  said  to  consist 
of,  innumerable  minute  shells.  In  all  these  cases,  the 
densely  associated,  and  countless  millions  of  once  living 
beings,  which  inhabited  these  shells,  must  have  died,  by 
the  upheaving  out  of  the  sea,  of  the  compact  masses  con- 
sisting of  them,  and  being  thus  left  dry.  A  death,  more 
protracted,  and  therefore  more  painful,  than  if  they  had 
been  devoured  by  larger  cephalopods. 

Some  approach  to  an  idea  of  the  countless  myriads  of 
animals  thus  rendered  the  prey  of  death  may  be  made, 
if  we  remember  that  a  cube  of  this  tripoli  rock,  or  pol- 
ishing stone,  of  but  one  tenth  of  an  inch,  is  found  to  con- 
tain five  hundred  millions  of  these  minute  shells,  or 
shields^  as  they  have  been  called.  Each  one  of  these  lit- 
tle shells  constitutes  an  exquisitely  formed  dwelling,  com- 
prising several  cells,  most  beautiful  in  material,  and,  in 
general  structure,  resembling  the  beautiful  shell  called 
nauiilus.    A  cubic  inch  of  this  polishing  stone  weighs 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.  395 

But  about  two  hundred  and  twenty  grains,  i.  e.  less  than 
half  an  ounce,  and  yet  it  contains  41,000  millions  of  these 
shells. 

In  Bohemia  there  is  said  to  be  a  large  deposit  of  this 
stone,  occupying  a  surface  of  great  extent,  which  was, 
probably,  the  bed  of  an  ancient  lake.  This  stone  is 
there  found,  forming  slaty  layers,  of  fourteen  inches  in 
thickness.  (See  Cosmos,  vol.  i.  p.  46,  note.) 

Again,  there  is  a  kind  of  mountain  limestone  found  in 
the  hills  of  Yorkshire  and  Derbyshire,  in  England,  and 
in  innumerable  other  places,  many  miles  in  extent,  and 
hundreds  of  feet  in  thickness.  Even  without  a  micro- 
scope, this  limestone  may  be  seen  to  consist  of  scarcely 
anything  else  than  the  skeletons  of  the  many-fingered 
crinoideal  families,  and  the  occasional  beds  of  bivalve 
and  some  univalve  shells,  lying  together,  in  all  ages  and 
degrees  of  growth. 

Similar  beds  of  a  not  very  dissimilar  limestone  are 
found  occupying  large  districts  in  this  state,  (Alabama;) 
and  there  is  an  immense  bed  of  limestone  underlying, 
apparently,  the  whole  region  of  country  from  Reading, 
in  Pennsylvania,  embracing  Hummelstown,  Harrisburg, 
Carlisle,  Chambersburg,  and  Gettysburg,  Pa.,  and  the 
whole  extent  of  the  valley  of  Virginia,  as  far  as  Staun- 
ton, at  the  eastern  base  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains. 

On  a  similar  mass  of  limestone  rock,  stands  Cincinnati, 
in  Ohio,  and  St.  Louis,  in  Missouri. 

The  number,  and  the  rapid  multiplication  of  the  minute 
animalcul83  that  enter  into  the  substance  of  many  rocks, 
and  the  fossil  remains  of  which  constitute  immense  moun- 
tain masses,  are  almost  inconceivable. 

Those  little  animals  called  infusoriae,  for  instance,  are 


396  DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

of  diversified  form,  many  of  them  are  of  brilliant  hues ; 
some  green,  others  yellow,  blue,  crimson,  and  often 
perfectly  transparent,  so  that  not  only  the  mouth,  cil- 
iary fringes,  and  numerous  organs  of  prehension  and 
of  progress  are  seen,  but  also  the  stomach,  and  ap- 
pendages, and  canals,  with  their  inosculations.  The 
celebrated  Ehrenberg  has  discovered  in  them  muscles, 
intestines,  teeth,  different  kinds  of  glands,  eyes,  nerves, 
and  organs  of  reproduction.  He  has  discovered  that 
some  are  born  alive,  others  produced  by  eggs,  and  some 
multiplied  by  spontaneous  division  of  their  bodies  into 
two  or  several  distinct  individuals.  So  prolific  are  they, 
that  a  single  individual  can,  in  a  few  hours,  procreate 
many  millions  of  beings  like  itself. 

In  their  collective  volume,  it  is  supposed  they  exceed 
all  other  animated  beings.     (Dr.  J.  Pye  Smith,  p.  331.) 

By  means  of  their  silicious  coverings,  or  shells,  these 
animalculoG  form  earthy  masses,  stones,  and  rocks,  in  im- 
mense quantities.  They  are  found  in  nearly  all  sub- 
stances, and  in  every  fluid.  They  exist,  also,  in  the 
bodies  of  men,  and  other  animals.  Conglomerations  of 
them,  accumulated  during  the  progress  of  long  rolling 
ages,  are  ascertained  to  compose  immense  banks  on  the 
shores,  and  at  the  bottoms  of  seas :  and  these,  when  up- 
heaved by  geological  causes,  have  been  solidified  into 
mountains.    (See  Dr.  J.  P.  Smith,  Script,  and  Geol.  p.  332.) 

Some  of  these  masses  of  rocks  are  hundreds,  and  even 
thousands  of  feet  thick.  Of  the  Egyptian  pyramids,  some 
are  built  of  the  nummulite  limestone,  which  is  itself  en- 
tirely composed  of  chambered  shells,  of  very  small  size, 
and  of  exquisitely  beautiful  construction.     (Id.  p.  70.) 

Indeed  there  is  ample  ground  for  the  opinion,  that  all 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.      397 

chalk,  and  indeed  all  other  calcareous  masses,  are  nothing 
but  the  corpses  and  the  habitations  of  these  infinitesi- 
naally  minute  creatures. 

Moreover,  the  mud  of  which  the  deltas  of  rivers — such 
as  the  Mississippi  and  the  Nile — are  composed,  and  which 
constitutes  the  alluvial  lands,  the  richest  soil  in  the 
world,  is  found  to  be  composed,  in  great  part,  of  the  re- 
mains of  such  minute  animalculae,  and  of  their  shelly 
habitations  :  those  native  to  fresh-water,  being  unable  to 
live  in  salt-water ;  while  those  native  to  the  sea,  cannot 
inhabit  fresh- water.  The  mixing  of  fresh  water  and  of 
salt  at  the  mouths  of  rivers,  kills  these  little  creatures 
by  myriads  of  myriads,  every  hour,  and  occasions  a 
constantly  increasing  mass  of  deposits  in  all  such  sestu- 
aries  at  the  mouths  of  large  rivers,  in  addition  to  the 
mud  brought  down  from  the  lands  on  the  head-waters, 
which  is  held  in  solution,  and  finally  deposited  in  these 
deltas,  and  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

This  circumstance,  we  m.ay  remark,  discovers  to  us 
one  of  the  latent,  and  often  unsuspected  sources  of  error 
in  computing  the  age  of  river  deltas ;  for  no  care  can 
detect,  and  no  skill  can  compute  with  any  approximation 
to  accuracy,  the  countless  myriads  of  these  minute  ani- 
mals which  are  thus  killed  in  the  brackish  water  of 
these  sestuaries — are  daily  and  hourly  mingling  with  the 
subsiding  sediment,  to  form  the  deltas  of  rivers,  and  the 
alluvial  lands  ever  rising  near  the  mouths  of  rivers. 

Several  curious  f^xcts  have  been  observed  in  different 
countries,  which  show  the  almost  incredible  numbers  of 
these  infusoria)  and  minute  animalcule,  in  the  waters 
of  lakes,  and  rivers,  and  in  the  seas.  At  Punta  Gordo, 
in  the  Banda  Oriental,  South  America,  Mr.  Darwin  found, 


398  DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

in  the  soil  of  the  pampas,  and  even  constituting  that 
soil,  an  estuary  deposit,  with  limestone  containing  extinct 
shells.  Low  down  in  this  deposit,  close  to  the  skeletons 
of  the  mastodon,  he  found  some  of  the  red  earth  which 
is  the  rich  soil  of  the  pampas.  This  red  earth,  examined 
by  Ehrenberg  under  a  powerful  microscope,  was  found 
to  contain  many  infusorise,  partly  salt-water  and  partly 
fresh- water,  with  the  latter  preponderating. 

These  immense  pampas  of  South  America  must,  there- 
fore, once  have  been  the  beds  of  estuaries,  or  perhaps  of 
fresh- water  lakes,  gradually  encroached  on  by  the  sea, 
and  made  brackish,  and  then  elevated  and  left  dry.  (See 
Darwin's  Voyage  of  a  Naturalist,  vol.  i.  p.  165.  Also 
Darwin's  Geological  Observations  on  South  America,  pp. 
87,  88.) 

Again,  in  Patagonia,  the  same  distinguished  naturalist 
found — superimposed  upon  a  great  deposit,  extending  five 
hundred  miles  along  the  coast,  and  including  many  ter- 
tiary shells,  chiefly  a  sort  of  gigantic  oyster,  nearly  all  of 
them  extinct — a  peculiar  soft  white  stone,  including  much 
gypsum,  and  resembling  chalk,  but  really  of  a  pumiceous 
nature.  Strange  to  say,  this  stone  is  composed,  to  at 
least  one  tenth  of  its  bulk,  of  infusoria3.  Professor  Ehren- 
berg has  discovered  in  it,  thirty  oceanic  forms.  At  Port 
St.  Julian,  this  bed  of  infusorial  pumice  is  five  hundred 
feet  thick.    (Id.  vol.  i.  p.  209.) 

In  like  manner  the  black,  white,  and  red  mud,  with 
which  the  savages  of  Terra  del  Fuego  bedaub  their  naked 
bodies,  proved,  when  examined  by  Ehrenberg,  to  consist 
mainly  of  minute  shells,  pronounced  by  him,  from  in- 
spection merely,  to  be  inhabitants  of  fresh  water.  And 
such  proves  to  be  the  fact :  for  Jemmy  Button,  a  native 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.      899 

of  the  country,  who  had  been  for  some  years  in  England, 
and  was  then  returning  with  the  crew  of  the  Beagle, 
assured  Darwin  that  this  mud  paint  is  always  collected 
in  the  beds  of  brooks  flowing  from  the  mountains.  (Id. 
pp.  284,  285,  note.) 

It  has  been  found  also,  that  clouds  of  dust,  exceed- 
ingly fine,  blown  far  out  to  sea,  and  falling  on  the  rigging 
and  decks  of  ships,  in  some  instances  many  hundreds 
of  miles  distant  from  land,  was  nothing  else  than  im- 
mense quantities  of  extremely  minute  shells,  the  habita- 
tions of  millions  of  animalcules,  some  living,  and  some 
dead,  and  thus  transported  to  vast  distances. 

The  very  country  where  these  minute  shells  originated, 
has  been  determined  by  the  skill  of  science.  It  is  said 
that,  at  times,  this  dust  falls  in  such  quantities  as  to 
darken  the  atmosphere ;  and  that  ships  have,  occasion- 
ally, been  lost  in  consequence  of  the  obscurity.  (Lyell's 
Princ.  Geol.  p.  446.  Darwin's  Voyage  of  a  Katuralist, 
vol.  i.  pp.  6,  7.) 

The  phosphorescence  of  the  ocean,  also,  is  attributed 
to  the  presence  of  innumerable  myriads  of  minute  ani- 
malculae — animated  gelatine.     (Id.  vol.  i.  p.  209.) 

On  one  occasion,  Darwin  tells  us,  the  ship,  which  drew 
thirteen  feet  of  water,  passed  over  many  circular  and 
oval  patches  of  brightly  phosphorescent  water,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Plata,  without  disturbing  the  patches  ;  so 
that  some  of  these  minute  animals  were  congregated  to- 
gether at  a  greater  depth  than  the  bottom  of  the  vessel, 
(p.  214.) 

Nay,  what  is  more  extraordinary  still,  in  masses  which 
have  been  ejected  by  volcanoes^  in  the  form,  probably,  of 
mud,  or  in  showers  of  what,  at  the  time,  might  have 


400  •    DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

seemed  to  be  ashes,  shells  and  aniraalculae  have  been 
detected. 

Thus  in  the  Isle  of  Ascension,  in  the  Atlantic,  there  is 
a  singular  hill,  formed  of  the  older  series  of  volcanic 
rocks,  and  which  has  been  erroneously  considered  as  the 
crater  of  a  volcano.  This  hill  is  remarkable  for  a  broad, 
slightly  hollowed,  and  circular  summit,  which  has  been 
filled  up  with  many  successive  layers  of  ashes,  and  fine 
scoriae.  These  saucer-shaped  layers  crop  out  on  the 
margin,  forming  perfect  rings,  of  many  different  colors, 
which  give  to  the  summit  a  most  fantastic  appearance. 
One  of  these  rings  is  white,  and  broad,  and  resembles  a 
course,  around  which  horses  have  been  exercised ;  hence 
the  hill  has  been  called,  "  The  DeviVs  Riding  SchooV 

Of  one  of  these  tufaceous  layers,  of  a  pinkish  color,  Mr. 
Darwin  brought  away  several  specimens;  and  singular 
as  it  may  seem,  Ehrenberg  found,  on  microscopic  exami- 
nation, that  these  specimens  were  composed  of  matter 
which  has  been  organized.  In  it,  he  detected  some 
silicious  shielded,  fresh-water  infusoria  ;  and  no  less  than 
twenty-five  different  kinds  of  the  silicious  tissue  of  plants ; 
chiefly  of  grasses.  From  the  total  absence  of  all  carbon- 
aceous matter,  this  distinguished  student  of  nature, 
Ehrenberg,  believes  that  these  organic  bodies  have 
passed  through  the  volcanic  fires,  and  were  erupted,  in 
the  state  in  which  we  now  see  them.  (Darwin,  Voy.  vol. 
ii.  p.  296,  also  Darwin,  So.  Amer.  pp.  108, 110, 118,  119.) 
Singularly  corroborative  of  this  opinion  avowed  by 
Prof.  Ehrenberg,  are  the  facts  presented  in  the  following 
passage  from  the  last  (the  10th)  edition  of  Sir  C.  Lyell's 
Principles  of  Geology,  (London,  1850,)  under  the  head- 
ing, "  Infusorial  beds  covering  Fomjieii." 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.      401 

*' A  most  singular  and  unexpected  discovery  has  been 
recently  made,  (1844-5)  by  Professor  Ehrenberg,  respect- 
ing the  layers  of  ashes  and  pumice  enveloping  Pompeii. 
They  are,  he  says,  of  organic  and  fresh-water  origin,  con- 
sisting of  the  silicious  cases  of  fresh- water  infusoria.* 

But,  what  is  still  more  extraordinary,  this  fact  proves 
to  be  by  no  means  an  isolated,  or  solitary  example  of 
intimate  relations  subsisting  between  organic  life,  and 
the  results  of  volcanic  activity. 

On  the  Ehine,  several  beds  of  tuff,  and  pumiceous  con- 
glomerate, resembling  the  mass  incumbent  upon  Pompeii, 
and  closely  connected  with  extinct  volcanoes,  are  now 
ascertained  to  be  made  up,  to  a  great  extent,  of  the  silicious 
cases  of  infusoria,  invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  and  often 
half  fused.  No  less  than  ninety -four  distinct  species  have 
been  already  detected,  in  one  mass  of  this  kind,  more 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  thick,  at  Hochsimmer,  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Ehine  near  the  Laucher-see. 

Some  of  these  Ehenish  infusoria  appear  to  have  fallen 
in  showers,  others  to  have  been  poured  out  of  lake-cra- 
ters, in  the  form  of  mud,  as  in  the  Brohl-valley.  In 
Mexico,  Peru,  the  Isle  of  France,  and  several  other  vol- 
canic regions,  analogous  phenomena  have  been  observed : 
and  everywhere,  the  species  of  infusoria  belong  to  fresh- 
water and  terrestrial  genera ;  except  in  the  case  of  Pata- 
gonian  pumiceous  tuffs ;  specimens  of  which,  brought  away 
by  Mr.  Darwin,  are  found  to  contain  marine  animalcules. 

*  Of  this  substance,  the  fragments  of  pumice  and  scoriae,  under  showers 
of  which  from  Vesuvius,  Pompeii  was  buried  a.d.  79,  I  brought  away- 
several  specimens  from  Pompeii,  in  October  1846,  and  they  are  still  in  my 
possession.  Little  did  I  think  when  gathering  them  that  they  had  already 
been  demonstrated  to  be  composed  of  fresh-water  shells  ! 


402      DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OP  GOD. 

In  various  kinds  of  pumice  ejected  by  volcanoes,  the 
microscope  has  revealed  the  silicious  cases  of  infusoria, 
often  half  obliterated  by  the  action  of  heat. 

And  the  fine  dust  thrown  out  into  the  air  by  volcanic 
eruptions,  is  sometimes  referable  to  these  minute  organic 
substances,  brought  up  from  considerable  depths,  and 
sometimes  mingled  with  small  particles  of  vegetable 
matter.     (Princ.  Geol.  pp.  372,  373.) 

What  a  field  is  here  opened  for  reflection !  From  time 
immemorial,  perhaps  myriads  of  ages  before  man  was, 
this  earth  was  peopled  by  innumerable  races  of  animated 
beings,  race  succeeding  race,  but  all  the  pi;ey  of  death, 
long  before  Adam  sinned,  or  Adam  lived  I 

And  consequently  all  those  passages  in  the  Bible  which 
speak  of  death  as  ihe  fruit  ofmarHs  sin  must  be  understood 
as  restricted,  in  their  application,  to  man  exclusively. 
The  entire  animal  creation  was  from  the  first  subjected  to 
deatn.  The  spectacles  of  animals  dying  might  have  been 
early  familiar  to  man.  The  threat,  "  in  the  day  tliou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shall  surely  die^'^  might,  therefore,  in  part, 
have  been  quite  intelligible  to  him.  This  threat  itself 
involved  a  pledge  from  God,  that  if  he  sinned  not,  he 
should  not  die !  So  long  as  man  retained  his  integrity 
man  might  thus,  in  his  exemption  from  death,  no  less 
than  in  intellect  and  in  his  moral  powers,  have  been  strik- 
ingly superior  to  the  brutes ! 

Sin  would,  therefore,  entail  a  curse,  which  he  would 
the  more  keenly  feel,  in  that  it  would  strip  him  of  this 
striking  superiority  over  the  brute  creation,  and  degrade 
him  to  a  level  with  the  beasts,  in  rendering  his  body  mor- 
tal, and  subject  to  decay  like  theirs. 


/ 

DEATH   AMONG  THE   WORKS   OF   GOD.  408 

If  obedient,  the  threat  itself  did  virtually  assure  him, 
he  would  be  kept,  by  the  special  power  of  God,  from 
death  and  from  decay,  until,  his  term  of  probation  com- 
pleted, he  would  probably  have  been  transferred  to  a 
higher  degree  of  happiness  and  purity,  and  in  another 
world. 

It  must,  however,  have  been  by  the  special  power  of  God, 
exerted  for  this  very  purpose,  that  man,  had  he  not  sinned, 
would  have  been  preserved  from  death.  Because,  (as  has 
been  well  remarked  by  another,  see  Dr.  J.  P.  Smith,  p. 
68,)  "all  organized  matter,  everything  that  has  life, 
vegetable  or  animal,  (as  now  existing,  at  least,)  is  formed 
upon  a  plan  which  renders  death  necessary,  or  something 
equivalent  to  death." 

"  The  law  of  organization,  from  the  embryo  formation 
to  the  maturity  of  the  animal,  is  carried  on,  in  the  way 
of  a  continual  separation  of  particles,  and  their  replace- 
ment by  new  ones,  which  the  nutritive  process  incessantly 
furnishes,  (p.  206.) 

Vegetables  derive  a  part  of  their  nutriment  from  in- 
organic masses,  (the  earths,  gases,  &c.,  that  never  had 
life.)  But  in  animals  it  is  not  so.  Animals  cannot  be 
supported  by  any  substances,  except  such  as  have  had  life, 
vegetable  or  animal.  In  the  present  constitution  of  this 
world,  "  the  mysterious  principle  of  animal  life,  is  universally 
maintained  by  the  agency  of  death.  Death  is,  then,  the 
universal,  the  indispensable  feeder  of  life.  From  dead 
organic  matter  the  living  structure  derives  its  necessary 
support.  But  these  supplies  do  not  bring  a  perpetuity 
of  existence.  Their  very  nature  and  operation  imply 
the  contrary.  The  processes  of  nutrition,  assimilation, 
growth,  exhaustion,  and  reparation,  hold  on  their  UiC- 


404      DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

sistible  course  to  decay  and  dissolution,  i.  e.  to  death." 
(Id.  p.  69.) 

To  this  process  of  progression,  decay,  and  reparation, 
(observes  the  same  judicious  writer,  pp.  206,  207,)  im- 
passahle  limits  are  set^  by  the  most  certain  laws  of  the 
Creator's  ordinance,  viz.,  those  of  gravity  and  of  chemical 
action. 

"  To  suppose  that  these  laws  should  be  annulled,  or 
perpetually  suspended,  involves  a  contradiction  :  it  would 
be  appointing  laws  which  were  only  to  be  suspended. 
When  a  certain  point  is  reached  in  any  organized 
body,  these  fixed  laws  of  God's  appointment,  insure  the 
separation,  changed  combination,  and  dissolution  of  the 
molecules.  But  this  is  the  very  rudiment  of  death — its 
sure  forerunner." 

It  seems,  therefore,  certain,  that,  inasmuch  as  to  man 
the  mortality  of  his  body  is  one  of  the  results  of  sm,  the 
exemption  which  appertained  to  man's  bodily  constitu- 
tion in  the  state  of  his  pristine  purity,  from  the  operation 
of  this  law  of  progress  towards  dissolution,  that  applied 
to  all  the  inferior  animals,  must  have  resulted  from  causes 
to  us  now  unknown.  The  human  frame  must  have  been 
maintained  in  this  distinguished  peculiarity  so  long  as 
man  was  sinless,  by  some  special  means  employed  by 
God  for  this  specific  purpose. 

It  seems,  therefore,  highly  probable,  as  some  able 
writers  have  maintained,  that  the  tree  (/Zz/e  planted  in  the 
midst  of  Eden,  was  not  only  a  symbol  of  undying  life^  but 
the  means  to  insure  it:  that  it  was  the  antidote  to  decay, 
the  elixir  of  animal  life  in  man ;  a  natural  means  ap- 
pointed by  the  God  of  nature  himself,  to  counteract  all 
tendencies  to  decay  in  the  human  body,  and  maintain  it 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.  406 

in  youthful  vigor  and  health  unfailing,  until,  in  the  nat- 
ural course  of  things,  the  whole  man,  physical,  mental, 
and  moral,  would  be  fitted  for  removal  to  another  and  a 
brighter  abode,  where  even  the  last  remaining  liability 
to  imperfection  would  disappear. 

This  remedial  efficacy  against  death  and  decay,  as  in- 
herent in  the  tree  of  life,  seems  more  than  intimated  in 
the  sacred  record  itself :  for,  after  the  transgression  of 
the  first  pair  in  Eden,  we  read  :  "  The  Lord  God  said,  And 
noiv,  lest  man  put  forth  his  hand,  and  take  also  of  the  tree  of 
life,  and  eat,  and  live  forever :  therefore  the  Lord  God  sent 
him  forth  from  the  garden  of  Eden."  (Gen.  iii.  22,  23.) 
This  passage  seems  certainly  to  imply  the  existence  of 
such  efficacy  in  the  tree  of  life,  that  if,  even  after  the  fall, 
man  had  eaten  thereof,  his  body  would  have  been  ex- 
empt from  death.* 

Had  man  retained  his  integrity,  he  would  probably,  at 
the  close  of  a  limited  period  of  personal  probation,  have 
passed  through  a  transforming  process,  without  dying, 
and  have^then  been  transferred  to  some  other  scene  of 
action,  and  a  higher  state  of  existence.  But,  transgress 
he  did  !  On  him  the  curse  actually  fell.  Those  special 
conservative  influences  against  death  were  withdrawn ; 
the  tree  of  life,  the  sovereign  and  only  antidote  against 
decay,  was  effectually  barred  against  his  approach.  The 
human  body  became,  thenceforth,  subject  to  the  same 
law  that  applies  to  all  other  organized  bodies,  that  of 
progression  and  decay ;  and  the  utterance  of  the  awful 
words,  by  the  voice  of  God,  Dust  thou  art,  and  to  dust 
shalt  thou  return,  made  known  the  fact  of  man's  degra- 
dation to  mortality,  just  as  are  the  beasts  of  the  field  ! 
*  See  also  Hitchcock's  "  Religion  of  Geology,"  p.  94. 


40#      DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD. 

What  an  affecting  view  does  the  subject  just  discusi 
present,  of  the  nature  of  the  world  we  live  in,  and 
the  condition  of  man  ! 

This  beautiful  world  is,  after  all,  one  vast  cemeterj 
We  ourselves  dwell  among  the  dead  ;  we  feed  upon  i 
dead  ;  the  very  air  we  breathe,  is  but  the  oft-used  bre; 
of  the  dead ;  and  the  gay  clothing  we  wear  has  be 
rifled  from  the  dead ;  yea,  even  the  material  particles 
which  our  bodies  are  composed,  are  the  pillaged  spoils 
the  dead,  who  have  preceded  us ! 

The  marble  that  adorns  your  halls  of  state,  is  but  1 
mausolea  of  myriads  of  the  dead,  entombed  there 
The  ground  we  tread  on,  the  rocks  employed  in  < 
buildings,  are  but  compact  masses  of  the  corpses  or  i 
ashes  of  the  dead.  The  water  we  drink,  teems  with  ' 
living  and  the  dead  innumerable.  The  food  spread  uf 
our  tables,  the  luscious  fruits  that  tempt  our  taste,  : 
rich  odors  of  the  flowers  that  adorn  our  apartments, 
derive  their  flavor  from  the  remains  of  the  dead  ther 
contained,  and  variously  combined. 

♦  "  Limestone  has  been  chiefly  elaborated  by  the  organs  of  anin 
many  of  them  of  microscopic  littleness.  Yet  lofty  ranges  of  mount 
and  immense  deposits  in  the  intervening  valleys,  have  been  the  res 
Nearly  one-seventh  part  of  the  crast  of  the  globe,  it  has  been  sai( 
thus  constituted  of  the  works  or  remains  of  animals."  (IIitchc< 
Relig,  of  Qeol.  p.  212.) 

Dr.  Pritchard  has  remarked :  "  It  is  hardly  conceivable  that,  wil 
the  narrow  space  of  a  grain  of  mustard-seed,  8,000,000  of  living,  ac 
creatures  can  exist,  all  richly  endowed  with  the  organs  and  facultiej 
animal  life.  Such,  however,  is  the  fact."  (History  of  Infusorise,  j 
Relig.  of  Geol.  p.  455.) 

Indeed  some  philosophers  have  asserted,  that  it  is  probable  every 
tide  of  matter  forming  the  crust  of  our  globe,  has,  at  some  period, 
tered  into  the  composition  of  organized  living  beings ! 


DEATH  AMONG  THE  WORKS  OF  GOD.  407 

The  very  blood  that  circulates  in  our  veins  has  reached 
us  from  sources  exuding  from  the  dead.  The  rich  glow 
of  the  youthful  cheek,  wells  up  from  the  graves  of  the 
dead ;  and  the  lips,  on  the  pressure  of  which  afiection 
lingers  so  fondly,  are  formed  of  materials  that  have  passed, 
times  innumerable,  through  the  process  of  corruption, 
decay,  and  death.  What  a  lesson  is  this  for  human 
pride,  "  Dust  thou  artP^ 

What  a  lesson  for  the  noon-tide  of  manly  vigor,  for 
the  blushing  morn  of  woman's  beauty.  Dust  thou  art! 
And  oh  I  how  it  should  endear  to  ns  the  hope  of  obtain- 
ing admission  to  that  nobler  land,  where  there  is  no 
more  sickness,  nor  sorrow,  neither  do  they  die  any  more ; 
and  especially  and  pre-eminently  how  it  should  endear  to 
us  that  Divine  Saviour^  who  yielded  his  own  sacred  per- 
son to  death^  that  he  might  give  us  life ! 

Jesus'  blood  here  spilt,  has  consecrated  this  earth 
anew  a  second  Eden  I  His  cross  is  to  us  the  "  Tree  of 
Life^^  He  that  participates  of  the  fruit  borne  by  that 
ixQQ  shall  live  forever  !     Amen. 


LECTUKE   XII. 

MAN    ONE    FAMILY. 

Qen.  xi.  1. — "  And  the  whole  earth  was  of  one  language,  and  of 
one  speech." 

This  assertion  of  the  sacred  record,  in  relation  to  mci 
at  a  period  not  much  later  than  the  deluge,  and  befor 
the  commencement  of  the  abortive  effort  which  has  ren 
dered  Babel  so  memorable,  reveals  a  fact  precisely  sue! 
as  we  might  look  for  if  the  deluge  was  literally  universa' 
and  if  "  NoaJi  only  remained  alive^  and  they  that  were  ivit 
him  in  the  ark"  Gen.  vii.  23.  For  plainly  in  that  cas 
all  the  growing  population  subsequent  to  that  catastroph 
must  have  sprung  from  Noah  and  his  three  sons ;  the; 
must  have  been  of  one  and  the  same  stock ;  and  the; 
must,  therefore,  all  have  been  originally  of  one  languor 
and  of  one  speech. 

This  passage  in  Genesis  must  refer  to  the  entire  popu 
lation  of  the  globe  at  that  time.  It  cannot  be  restricted 
to  any  one  particular  land  or  country,  and  to  some  on 
tribe  or  nation  occupying  that  one  specified  districi 
All  the  circumstances  of  the  case  forbid  such  restrictior 
This  declaration  stands  as  introductory  to  the  record,  o; 
the  building  of  the  tower  of  Babel,  the  confounding  o: 
the  language  of  those  so  employed,  and  their  consequen 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  40^ 

separation  into  several  branches  or  communities,  each 
speaking  its  own  peculiar  language  unintelligible  to  the 
others,  and  of  the  after  settlements  of  these  several  bands 
of  colonists  in  different  countries  ;  by  all  which  the  ulti- 
mate peopling  of  the  whole  earth  was  secured.  This 
separation  of  the  earth's  population,  or  this  dividing  of 
the  earth  as  the  sacred  penman  calls  it,  took  place  in  the 
days  of  Peleg^  whose  birth  is  recorded  Gen.  x.  25.  It  has, 
therefore,  been  concluded,  that  the  confounding  of  man's 
language  at  Babel,  which  led  to  the  dispersion,  took  place 
not  very  long  after  the  deluge,  and  at  a  time  when  the 
post-diluvian  population  might  readily  have  numbered 
several  thousands. 

This  oneness  of  the  primitive  language  spoken  by  the 
entire  post-diluvian  population  of  the  earth,  up  to  the 
days  of  Peleg,  is  one  of  the  proofs  going  to  show,  that 
to  this  day  it  is  true,  Man  is  one  Family. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  diversities  marking  what  are 
called  the  several  races  of  mankind,  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  our  globe  even  now,  is  sprung  from  the  same 
stock.  All  men  of  all  nations  and  countries,  whatever 
be  the  shade  of  their  complexion,  the  difference  in  their 
features,  their  anatomical  structure,  their  habits  of  life, 
and  their  intellectual  capacity — the  Caucasian,  the  Negro, 
the  Mongol,  the  Malay,  the  Papuan — are  each  and  all 
the  descendants  of  the  one  original  human  pair,  Adam 
and  Eve,  in  the  line  of  Noah  and  his  three  sons,  who, 
with  their  wives,  were  the  sole  survivors  of  the  deluge. 
They  all  constitute  One  Family ;  they  are  all  sprung  from 
Eve^  i,  e.  Life ;  so  named  on  that  very  account,  that  she 
was  to  be  the  mother  of  all  living^  (Gen.  iil.  20,)  just  as  it  is 
declared  in  the  book  of  Acts,  (xvii.  26,)  "  God  hath  made 

18 


410  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

of  one  hhod  all  nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of 
the  earths 

Such  is  the  view  the  Bible  presents :  such  is  the  view 
we  hold  and  shall  maintain.  All  the  various  races  of 
men  now  inhabiting  our  globe,  are  derived  from  one 
common  stock — they  are  all  descended  from  one  original 
pair — thej  still  constitute  hut  one  family. 

Against  this  doctrine,  numerous  grave  objections  are 
urged ;  and  these  objections  are  backed  by  names  of  ce- 
lebrity and  weight.  The  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from 
facts  exhibited  in  natural  history,  do,  in  the  opinion  of 
some,  present  invincible  difficulties  in  the  way  of  receiv- 
ing as  true  the  doctrine  that  all  the  now  differing  races 
of  men  are  sprung  from  one  original  pair. 

The  negro  at  least  (we  are  told)  is  a  distinct  race^  and 
must  have  had  a  separate  origin.  Negroes  cannot  Jiave 
sprung  from  the  same  stock  as  the  white  man  /* 

The  celebrated  Professor  Agassiz  says,  that  "  as  a  ques- 
tion of  natural  history,  the  investigation  of  the  human 
race  leads  to  the  idea  of  diversity  in  their  origin,  rather 
than  to  the  supposition  that  they  have  originated  from  a 
common  stock.  (See  Christian  Examiner,  July,  1850,  pp. 
138,  139.) 

Again,  Professor  A.  remarks :  "  Men  were  primitively 
located  in  the  various  parts  of  the  world  they  inhabit, 
and  they  arose  everywhere  in  those  harmonic  propor- 
tions with  other  living  beings,  which  would  at  once  se- 
cure their  preservation,  and  contribute  to  their  welfare. 
To  suppose  that  all  men  originated  from  Adam  and  Eve, 
is  to  assume  that  the  order  of  creation  has  been  changed 

*  Two  Lectures  on  the  Connection  between  the  Biblical  and  Physical 
History  of  Man,  by  Dr.  J.  C.  Nott,  1849,  p.  33.  p.  67. 


■       MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  41i\ 

in  the  course  of  historical  time,  and  to  give  to  the  Mosaic 
record  a  meaning  that  it  never  was  intended  to  have^  Prof. 
A.  ^^  insists  that  Genesis  must  be  considered  as  relating 
chiefly  to  the  history  of  the  white  race,  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  history  of  the  Jews."  (Id.  pp.  137,  138.) 

On  a  question  of  mere  science,  in  relation  to  any  mere 
animal,  it  were  presumption  in  almost  any  man,  and  es- 
pecially in  an  obscure  theologian,  to  dispute  a  position 
assumed  by  one  so  eminent  in  his  department  of  natural 
history  as  the  justly  celebrated  Prof.  Agassiz.  But 
when  Agassiz  peremptorily  declares  that  such  and  such 
is  the  teaching  of  Grenesis,  in  direct  contradiction  of  the 
opinion  held  by  the  great  body  of  learned  expositors  of 
holy  writ,  he  leaves  his  own  province,  and  exposes  him- 
self to  rebuke — as  incompetent. 

And  when  Prof.  A.  treats  man  as  a  mere  brute  animal, 
in  the  mode  of  his  pursuing  his  investigations — the  dig- 
nity of  his  own  nature  as  man,  a  reasoning,  improvable, 
and  responsible  being,  possessed  of  powers  that  render 
man  what  no  other  animal  is,  or  can  be  made  to  be,  a 
cosmopolite,"^'  capable  of  existing  and  of  flourishing  in  all  cli- 
mates, and  in  all  countries — most  assuredly  rebukes  him ! 

Again,  writes  Prof.  A. :  "We  challenge  those  who  main- 
tain that  mankind  originated  from  a  single  pair,  to  pro- 
duce a  single  passage  from  the  whole  Scripture,  pointing 
at  those  physical  differences  which  we  notice  between  the 
white  race  and  the  Chinese,  the  New  Hollanders,  the 
Malays,  the  American  Indians,  and  the  negroes,  as  hav- 
ing been  introduced  in  the  course  of  time,  among  the 
children  of  Adam  and  Eve."  (Id.  pp.  134,  135.)     Again 

*  See  Principles  of  Zoology,  by  Agassiz  and  Gould,  chap.  xiii.  sec.  1, 
p.  154. 


412  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

he  says,  ^*  This  assertion  of  the  common  descent  of  all 
races  of  men  from  a  common  stock,  is  a  mere  human 
construction,  entitled  to  no  more  credit,  and  no  more  con- 
fidence, and  no  more  respect,  than  any  other  conclusion 
arising  from  philosophical  investigations  of  this  subject, 
from  a  scientific  point  of  view,"  (p.  135.) 

These  are  startling  assertions,  and  they  are  very  confi- 
dently made.  If  true,  then  the  ablest,  the  most  learned, 
and  the  most  industrious  expositors  of  holy  writ,  in  all 
ages  of  the  world,  have  misunderstood  the  teachings  of 
the  Bible  on  this  point.  For  it  is  unquestionable,  that 
the  general  opinion  of  biblical  scholars  has  been,  and  is, 
that  the  Bible  distinctly  teaches  this  very  doctrine,  ofOie 
common  descent  of  all  mankind,  of  all  the  varying  races, 
from  one  original  stock,  from  Adam  andJSue^  and  again  from 
the  tJiree  sons  of  Noah. 

Whether  this  doctrine  be  true  or  false,  is  another  and 
a  different  question  :  but,  that  the  Bible  does  teach  this 
doctrine,  has  been  the  general  belief  of  both  Jews  and 
Christians,  and  that  in  all  ages. 

The  truth  of  this  doctrine  is  now  boldly  denied,  and  a 
separate  origin  is  claimed  for  each  of  the  several  races  of 
man.  The  argument  for  this  diversity  of  origin  for  the 
human  races,  and  more  especially  for  the  negro*  as  a  dis- 
tinct race,  may  be  thus  presented. 

Throughout  all  the  works  of  God  we  mark  progressive 
advance,  from  the  simpler  to  the  more  complex  forms,  in 
both  vegetable  and  animal  life ;  from  the  lichen  or  the 
moss,  to  the  rose,  the  lilac,  the  beauteous  flowering  peach, 

*  On  the  anatomical  peculiarities  of  the  negro,  see  Dr.  J.  C.  Nott's 
Two  Lectures,  published  in  Mobile,  1844,  pp.  23-26.  On  the  negro's 
cuticular  structure,  see  id.  p.  27. 


MAN   ONE   FAMILY.  413 

the  splendid  magnolia,  or  orange,  or  to  the  magnificent 
oak ;  from  the  animalcule  floating  invisible,  up  through 
almost  countless  series  of  animated  forms,  moluscs,  fishes, 
reptiles,  birds  and  beasts,  to  man.  Moreover,  each  genus 
has  its  distinct  species,  and  its  subordinate  varieties. 
Why  should  man  be  the  only  exception  ? 

But  among  men  also,  we  do  find  diversities  of  color, 
form,  general  appearance  and  habit ;  diversities  as  great 
and  as  striking  as  among  the  several  varieties  of  any  class 
of  animals :  as  great  as  those  which  mark  the  several 
divisions  of  the  feline  species ;  as  those  which  separate 
the  lion,  the  panther,  the  tiger  and  the  cat  from  one 
another. 

The  white,  or  Caucasian  race,  is  the  perfect  form  of 
man.  The  negro  is,  perhaps,  the  lowest :  and  the  negro 
is  distinguished  by  his  anatomical  structure,  the  peculi- 
arities of  his  skull,  and  his  nervous  system  ;*  the  relative 
size  of  his  limbs^  and  of  several  important  muscles,  as 
well  as  by  the  blackness  of  his  skin.  This  black  color, 
it  is  said,  results  from  a  peculiar  secretion  in  the  reticular 
membrane,  lying  beneath  the  outer  cuticle  :  this  secretion 
is  found  in  the  negro  only.  He  is  also  distinguished  by 
an  inferior  intellect. 

So  great,  striking  and  permanent  are  these  peculiarities, 
as  to  stamp  the  negro  a  distinct  race  from  the  white  man. 
Neither  climate,  difference  pf  food,  nor  peculiarity  of 
social  condition,  nor  all  these  combined,  can  ever  change 
a  white  man  into  a  negro,  or  a  negro  into  a  white  man. 
Such  changes  have  never  been  known  to  take  place :  for, 
up  to  the   remotest   antiquity  of  which  we   have  any 

*  See  a  curious  and  interesting  account  of  the  distinctive  peculiarities 
of  the  negro,  in  De  Bow's  Commercial  Review,  July,  1851,  p.  68. 


414  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

knowledge,  negroes  existed,  and  the  difference  between 
the  negro  and  the  white  man  was  just  the  same  in  the 
days  of  the  earlier  Pharaohs*  that  it  is  now.  This  is 
manifest  from  the  paintings  and  hieroglyphic  delineations 
found  on  the  older  Egyptian  monuments.  It  is  shown 
also  by  the  skulls  of  individuals  of  the  different  races, 
taken  from  the  oldest  catacombs  of  Egypt.  Indeed,  in 
his  concluding  remarks  on  Egyptian  Ethnography,  Dr. 
Morton  observes,  "The  physical  or  organic  characters 
which  distinguish  the  several  races  of  men,  are  as  old  as 
the  oldest  records  of  our  species."  (See  Crania  Egyptiaca, 
p.  66,  Obs.  15.) 

To  those  who  thus  reason,  to  establish  a  diversity  of 
origin  for  the  several  races  of  man,  it  is  in  vain  that  you 
point  to  the  sacred  record,  "  Ood  hath  made  of  one  blood  all 
nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earths 
(Acts  xvii.  26.) 

Professor  Agassiz  tells  us,  (see  Christian  Examiner  for 
July,  1850,  p.  135,)  "What  is  essential  for  men  in  a 
moral  point  of  view  in  their  intercourse  one  with  another, 
that  is  taught  in  the  Bible,  and  nothing  more.  This 
most  important  information  is  the  fact,  that  all  men  are 
men  equally  endowed  with  the  same  superior  nature,  and 
made  of  one  blood,  inasmuch  as,  this  figurative  expression 
applies  to  the  higher  unity  of  mankind,  and  not  to  their 
supposed  genital  connection  by  natural  descent.     This  higher 

*  The  Plates  in  Champollion's  Monumens  de  I'Egypte,  &c.,  show  tie- 
groes,  perfect  as  now,  in  the  reign  of  Thotmes  IV.  about  b.c.  1700.  and  in 
the  times  of  Ramses  II.,  Ramses  III.,  at  Thebes,  at  Ipsamboul,  &c.  (See 
Tom.  i.  Plate  ex.  Plate  71,  72,  &c.,  also  Rosellini,  Mon.  M.  R.  Tav.  75, 
B.C.  1570.)  But  Lepsius  claims  to  have  found  negroes  mentioned  at 
Sakkara  in  the  name  Kush,  on  monuments  of  the  sixth  dynasty,  b.c.  3000. 
(Sec  Mr.  Qliddon,  in  Lend.  Ethnol.  Journal,  no.  vii.  p.  310.) 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  ^  415 

nature, — the  closest,  the  most  intimate  unity,  which  exists 
without  a  common  descent,  without  that  relationship,  de- 
noted by  the  expression  *  ties  of  Uood^  (see  id.  p.  118,) 
Professor  Agassiz  declares  to  be  "  such  community  of 
physical  constitution,  such  a  unity  of  type,  such  an  essen- 
tial difference  from  the  character  of  even  the  highest  ani- 
mals, together  with  those  most  prominent,  more  elevating, 
more  dignifying  distinctions,  which  belong  to  man  as  an 
intellectual  and  moral  being,  and  which  are  so  emi- 
nently developed  in  civilized  society,  but  which  equally 
exist  in  the  natural  dispositions  of  all  human  races^  consti- 
tuting the  higher  union  among  men,  making  them  all 
equal  before  God,"  &c.  &c.  "  Such  (adds  the  eloquent  pro- 
fessor) is  the  foundation  of  a  unity  between  men,  truly 
worthy  of  their  nature :  such  is  the  foundation  of  those 
sympathies  which  will  enable  them  to  bestow  upon  each 
other,  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  the  name  of  brethren,  as 
they  are  brethren  in  God,  brethren  in  humanity,  though 
their  origin,  to  say  the  least,  is  lost  in  the  darkness  of  the 
beginning  of  the  world."  (Christ.  Exam.  July,  1850, 
p.  120.) 

Few  persons  entertain  a  higher  respect  for  the  talents 
and  the  attainments  of  Professor  Agassiz,  than  does  the 
writer  of  these  pages.  In  any  department  of  mere  science, 
the  opinions  of  Agassiz  are  entitled  to  profound  defer- 
ence. But,  as  an  expounder  of  the  sacred  records  of  our 
faith,  Agassiz  stands  before  us  shorn  of  his  strength. 

To  sustain  a  theory,  he  would  arbitrarily  impose  a 
novel  and  an  unnatural  interpretation  on  several  passa- 
ges of  the  Bible,  which  present  a  very  natural  and  a  to- 
tally different  meaning.     '■''Made  of  one  blood,'^  has,  ac- 


416  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

cording  to  him,  no  relation  at  all,  to  affinity  by  blood, 
or  to  natural  descent ! 

It  will  be  long  before  this  interpretation  shall  be  re- 
ceived by  sober-minded  expositors  of  the  Bible,  as  just 
and  sound. 

Moreover,  Professor  A.  assures  us  the  Bible  teaches 
only  what  is  important  for  men,  as  men ;  what  is  essential^ 
in  a  moral  point  ofview^  in  their  intercourse  one  with  an- 
other. But  he  has  failed  to  show  that  it  may  not  be  im- 
portant, for  the  proper  intercourse  of  man  with  man,  that 
men  should  know,  there  is  a  still  closer  bond  of  unity 
among  all  men,  than  this  ^^  higher  tinity"  of  which  he 
speaks  ;  even  a  unity  in  the  ties  of  blood:  a  unity  consist- 
ing in  a  common  origin,  a  common  descent  from  the 
same  primitive  human  pair,  the  progenitors  of  all  man- 
kind! 

The  knowledge  of  this  one  fact  may  possibly  have 
some  connection  with  the  highest  truths  of  religion,  with 
some  of  the  gravest  duties  required  of  man,  in  the  accept- 
ance and  in  the  propagation  of  religion.  All  these  points 
Professor  Agassiz  has,  in  his  zeal  for  a  novel  theory, 
wholly  overlooked.  Yet  these  points  are  worthy  of  note; 
and  they  will,  as  we  think,  be  found  important  in  their 
bearings.  Certain  it  is,  that  Genesis  records  the  giving 
of  a  name  Eve^  or  Life^  to  the  first  woman,  because  she 
was  to  become  '■'"the  mother  of  all  living^^^  which  must  cer- 
tainly mean  the  mother  of  the  entire  population  of  the 
globe. 

But  here  again.  Professor  Agassiz  steps  in  with  his  pe- 
culiar theory,  and  assures  us,  "  Genesis  relates  chiefly  to 
the  history  of  the  white  race,"  (p.  138.)  Again,  on  p.  Ill, 
"  We  have  no  statements  (in  the  records  of  Genesis)  re- 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  417 

lating  to  the  origin  of  the  inhabitants  now  found  in  those 
parts  of  the  world  which  were  unknown  to  the  ancients." 
In  a  note  on  the  same  page,  he  remarks,  "In  the  history 
in  Genesis,  the  branches  of  the  white  race  only  are  al- 
luded to,  and  nowhere  the  colored  races  as  suchJ^ 

This  assertion  is  gratuitous,  and  wholly  unsupported : 
moreover,  to  us  it  seems  contradictory  of  the  whole  spirit 
of  the  sacred  record,  and  inconsistent  with  the  scriptural 
doctrines  respecting  salvation  through  a  Kedeemer,  the 
Saviour  of  the  whole  world,  as  will  presently  be  shown. 

It  is  in  vain  that  the  friends  of  the  ^^  unity  of  the  human 
races''^  appeal  to  the  results  of  a  careful  comparison  of  lan- 
guages, by  which  it  is  shown  that  "  all  languages  through- 
out the  whole  world,  present  so  close  an  analogy  the  one 
to  the  other,  and  exhibit  so  many  points  of  resemblance, 
notwithstanding  the  vast  diversity  among  them,  that  the 
ablest  investigators  of  the  subject  have  concluded  all 
languages  must  have  been  originally  united  in  one, 
whence  they  draw  the  common  elements  essential  to 
them  all :  and  the  separation  between  them  could  not 
have  been  caused  by  any  gradual  departure,  or  individ- 
ual development ;  but  it  must  have  been  brought  about 
by  some  violent,  unusual,  active  force,  sufficient  alone  to 
reconcile  these  conflicting  appearances,  and  to  account, 
at  once,  for  the  resemblances,  and  the  differences." 
Such  an  event,  in  short,  as  the  confusion  of  tongues  at 
Babel  implies:  that  event  recorded  in  Gen.  xi.  immedi- 
ately after  the  declaration,  "  The  whole  earth  ivas  of  one  lan- 
guage and  of  one  speech^ 

To  this  argument,  the  advocates  for  a  diversity  of  races 
stoutly  object.  Thus  Prof.  Agassiz  says,  "  We  doubt  the 
possibility  of  deriving  from  such  sources  (ethnology  and 

18* 


418  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

philology)  evidence  capable  of  deciding  the  question 
either  one  way  or  the  other,"  (p.  139.) 

Again.  "  Why  should  not  the  different  races  of  men 
have  originally  spoken  distinct  languages,  as  they  do  at 
present,  differing  in  the  same  proportion,  as  their  organs 
of  speech  are  variously  modified  ?  And  why  should  not 
these  modifications,  in  their  turn,  be  indicative  of  primi- 
tive differences  among  them?"  (p.  140.) 

The  advocates  for  a  diversity  of  the  races  do,  most  usu- 
ally, esteem  but  lightly  the  arguments  derived  from  phi- 
lology. Thus  Dr.  Nott  (Two  Lectures,  Mobile,  1844,  p. 
39)  observes :  "  Volumes  have  been  written  on  the  affin- 
ity of  languages  and  religion,  to  prove  the  common  origin 
of  races  ;  but  to  my  mind,  nothing  can  be  more  fallacious. 
The  faintest  resemblances  in  grammatical  construction, 
or  in  particular  words,  have  been  seized  with  avidity, 
and  confidently  put  forth  as  evidence  of  a  common  ori- 
gin. Is  it  not  more  reasonable  to  believe  that,  in  ancient 
times,  as  in  the  present,  the  nations  who  were  most  civ- 
ilized, stamped  their  characters,  both  in  religion  and  in 
languages,  upon  the  inferior  tribes  with  which  they  held 
communication  ?" 

Again,  Dr.  N.  remarks :  "  If  a  great  physical  or  moral 
revolution  should  again  occur  in  the  world,  like  many 
which  have  occurred,  it  might  (many  ages  hence)  be  as- 
sumed that  the  negro  colonists  in  Liberia  are  descended 
from  the  English,  because  their  language  and  religion 
are  the  same." 

In  these  remarks,  both  these  writers  fail  to  do  justice 
to  the  subject.  Such  men  as  Sir  Wm.  Jones,  W.  Von 
Humboldt,  Schlegel,   Klaproth,  Adelung,  Johns,  Prit- 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  419 

chard,  and  other  distinguished  philologists,  are  not  likely 
to  be  so  easily  misled. 

The  evidence  of  a  colonial,  or  a  foreign  origin,  in  some 
particular  district,  is  often  readily  detected,  from  the 
language  of  that  district  presenting  points  of  resemblance 
to,  or  of  difference  from,  the  prevailing  language  of  the 
surrounding  region.  Thus,  even  without  the  corrobora- 
tive facts  exhibited  in  the  craniology  of  those  races^  cer- 
tain tribes  in  California,  and  on  other  parts  of  the  north- 
west coast  of  America,  are  shown  even  by  their  language 
to  be  of  foreign  origin,  (Agassiz  says  Mongolians,  see 
Christ.  Exam.  July,  1850,  p.  126,  note.  Pickering  calls 
them  Malays,  "On  the  Kaces,"  pp.  100,  103.)  Probably 
they  were  adventurers  out  to  sea,  stranded  on  that  coast, 
ages  ago. 

As  to  the  argument  of  Agassiz  on  the  subject  of  lan- 
guage, certainly  we  may  admit,  that  if  the  several  races 
of  men  be  of  different  origins,  indigenous  in  their  several 
localities,  we  might  reasonably  expect  that  "  they  would^ 
originally^  have  spoken  distinct  languages  as  they  do  at  prts- 
entr  The  fact,  then,  that,  notwithstanding  the  prevail- 
ing diversity  of  languages,  there  are  so  many  points  of 
resemblance  among  all  known  languages,  resemblances 
which  present  themselves,  the  more  numerous  and  the 
more  striking,  the  further  philologists  extend  their  re- 
searches, does,  to  one  who  duly  reflects  on  the  nature  of 
language,  and  appreciates  the  philosophical  character  of 
the  structure  of  language,  present  a  strong  case,  in  evi- 
dence of  a  common  origin*  for  them  all ;  and  with  it,  a 

*  On  this  subject  see  Pritchard's  Researches,  vol.  iv.  pp.  12-47.  See 
Wiseman's  Lectures.  Smith's  Patriarchal  Age,  p.  339,  «fcc.  Faber's  Pagan 
idolatry,  passim.    Sir  W.  Drummond's  Origines.    Pritchard's  Egyptian 


420  MAN   ONE   FAMILY. 

powerful  argument  for  the  common  origin  of  all  the  now 
widely  differing  races  of  men. 

The  advocates  for  the  unity  of  the  races  of  men  are 
accustomed  to  point  also  to  the  changes  effected  by  cli- 
mate, diet,  and  other  influences,  operating  through  a  long 
course  of  time,  on  colonies  planted  in  tropical  countries, 
as,  for  instance,  in  the  black  Jews  of  India.* 

Analogous  changes  in  domestic  animals,  effected  by 
climate,  mode  of  treatment,  &c.,  as  seen  in  the  several 
varieties  of  the  dog,  the  sheep,  horned  cattle,  horses,  the 
domestic  fowls,  &;c.  &c.  are  also  appealed  to. 

Granted,  is  the  reply ;  great  changes  are  certainly  ef- 
fected in  many  of  the  inferior  animals,  and,  what  may  be 
termed  new  varieties,  are  produced.  But  these  facts  do 
not  prove,  and  cannot  prove,  that  man  is  so  changed  by 
these  causes,  t 

.  The  difference  of  anatomical  structure  in  the  different 
races,  and  especially  in  whites  and  negroes,  is  too  great 
to  be  so  accounted  for.  Moreover,  no  instance  can  be 
found  on  record,  of  a  white  man  changed  into  a  negro, 
or  the  reverse. 

If,  then,  we  refer  to  the  grand  characteristics  of  man 
impressed  on  each  and  on  all  of  the  several  races  alike,  on 
the  negro  no  less  than  on  the  white  man — his  general  con- 
Mythology.  Early  Oriental  History,  Introduction,  and  also  p.  308. 
Smythe  on  the  Unity  of  Races,  chap.  xiv.  and  xv.  and  Redford's  Holy 
Scripture  Verified,  pp.  156-174. 

*  These  black  Jews  of  India  are  not  a  pure  race :  they  are  proselytes 
from  the  native  Hindoos.  See  Buchanan's  Researches  in  India  ;  also  Dr. 
J.  C.  Nott's  "Physical  History  of  the  Jewish  Race,"  in  the  Southern 
Quarterly  Review — an  able  and  interesting  article. 

t  On  analogous  changes  in  the  lower  animals,  see  Pritchard,  vol.  i. 
book  ii.  chap,  i.-viii. 


MAN   ONE  FAMILY.  421 

figuration,  his  upright  position,  the  faculty  of  reason,  the 
power  of  speech,  the  capacity  for  improvement,  and 
above  all,  his  moral  susceptibilities,  and  his  sense  of  ac- 
countabilit37- :  "  True,  (is  the  reply,)  they  are  all  men. 
The  negro  is  one  of  the  varieties  of  the  human  family^  he  is  one 
species  of  the  genus  homo.  But  this  does  not  necessarily 
involve  the  consequence  that  the  negro  has  sprung  from 
the  same  parent  stock  as  the  white  man.  These  charac- 
teristics are  the  mark  of  that  "  higher  unity  which  may 
exist  ijuithout  a  common  origin.  A  common  character  hy  no 
means  proves  common  descent  or  pareritage^  in  the  least  de- 
gree^ as  appears  hy  comparing  the  different  species  of  that  so 
large  genus  the  cats,  in  which  the  wild-catj  the  panther,  the 
leopard,  tiger,  lion,  and  all  the  numeroics  species  of  this  group, 
having  sux^h  similar  habits,  such  similar  natural  dispositions, 
with  the  same  structure,  were  yet  constituted  as  so  wxiny  dis- 
tinct species,  unconnected  in  their  genealogy.''''  (See  Christ 
Exam.  p.  118.) 

Now  in  this  reasoning,  the  learned  professor  certainly 
loses  sight  of  man's  higher  nature  as  a  rational  and  moral 
being,  else  he  would  hardly  represent  the  several  races 
of  men  as  being  united  in  nearly  the  same  sense  in  which 
the  several  species  of  the  large  genus,  the  cats,  are  one. 
Human  nature  is  not  a  unit  in  the  same  sense  merely  in 
which  the  feline  tribes  constitute  one  genus,  in  natural 
history.  There  are  the  further  characteristics  of  reason, 
of  speech,  of  moral  susceptibilities,  and  of  an  improvable 
nature,  making  a  wide  gap  between  man  and  any  order 
of  the  lower  tribes.  And  who  shall  say  that  this  further 
evidence  of  a  higher  unity  has  nothing  to  do  with  gene- 
alogy? 

Moreover,  these  several  soecies  of  the  feline  genus  do 


422  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

not  intermingle :  no  mixed  breeds  occur  among  them. 
But  among  the  several  races  of  the  human  family  such 
intermixtures  do  frequently  and  freely  occur,  insomuch 
that,  says  one  writer,  "  There  is  probably  no  'perfectly  pure 
race  of  men  now  on  earth.''''  (Two  Lect.  1849,  p.  35.)  So 
also  says  the  author  of  "  Outlines  of  Ethnology,"  in  the 
London  Eth.  Journal  No.  III.  p.  129 :  "  The  primitive 
races  no  longer  exist,  rigorously  speaking.  All,  or  nearly 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  are  of  mixed  blood^ 

Professor  Agassiz  does  himself,  in  another  place,  (p. 
119,)  very  forcibly  present  the  points  of  difference  be- 
tween man  and  the  monkey  family.  From  all  the  infe- 
rior animals  man  is  widely  distinguished.  It  cannot, 
therefore,  be  safe  or  philosophical,  to  reason  in  regard 
to  the  origin  of  man,  as  we  may  in  reference  to  the  origin 
of  brute  animals. 

It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  man's  rational 
powers  and  his  moral  nature  may  occasion,  or  may  indi- 
cate a  wide  difference  between  him  and  the  brutes,  as  to 
the  mode  of  his  origination. 

That  such  difference  has  really  been  made  by  the 
Creator,  the  Bible  seems  to  us,  at  least,  very  clearly  to 
teach — as  that,  whether  or  not  the  several  races  of  ani- 
mals may  have  all  originated  in  a  common  central  point, 
man,  assuredly,  and  all  the  varieties  of  man,  have  sprung 
from  one  parent  stock,  and  have  all  radiated  from  one 
central  point.  Still  the  advocates  of  distinct  races  ad- 
here to  their  argument  from  natural  history. 

"  As  a  question  of  natural  history,  (says  Agassiz,  p. 
138,)  the  investigation  of  the  human  race  leads  to  the 
idea  of  a  diversity  of  their  origin,  rather  than  to  the  sup- 
position that  they  have  originated  from  a  common  stock." 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  428 

In  respect  to  the  negro,  especially,  the  advocates  of 
diversity  of  origin  for  the  human  races,  maintain,  that 
"  as  subjects  of  the  naturalist's  investigation,  the  negro 
must  be  pronounced  a  race  separate  and  distinct  from 
the  white  man,  just  as  truly  as  the  ass  or  the  zebra  is 
distinct  from  the  horse  ;  or  as  the  leopard  is  distinct  from 
the  lion,  or  the  cat  from  the  tiger. 

"  The  distinctive  characteristics  of  their  race  have  been 
propagated  by  hereditary  descent,  through  all  past  gene- 
rations, from  time  immemorial.  We  find  them  a  distinct 
race  now.  The  records  of  the  past,  far  back  as  we  can 
go,  show  that  negroes  were  then  distinct  as  now,  and 
that  they  were  the  same,  in  all  their  distinctive  pecu- 
liarities, then  as  they  now  are.  They  are  distinct.  No 
known  causes  are  adequate  to  effect  the  change  from  the 
white  man  to  the  negro.  No  -one  solitary  instance  of 
such  change  from  the  white  man  to  the  negro,  or  from 
the  negro  to  the  white  man,  has  ever  been  produced,  or 
known.  No  such  case  is  on  record.  They  must^  then,  have 
been  created  a  distinct  race,  designed  to  occupy  a  region  of 
the  earth  adapted  to  them,  and  not  to  the  white  man. 

"  Eeason,  analogy,  and  history,  all  combine  to  show, 
tbat  the  distinction  is  an  essential  and  a  permanent  one :  it 
is,  indeed,  specific.  It  demands  a  distinct  and  separate 
origin  to  be  assigned  to  the  negro  and  to  the  white  man, 
just  as  to  the  horse  and  the  ass,  to  the  lion  and  to  the 
leopard.  The  advocates  of  identity  of  origin  for  all  the 
several  races  of  men,  as  sprung  from  one  only  primitive 
pair,  have  no  argument  to  urge  in  support  of  that  posi- 
tion, but  simply  a  vulgar  prejudice,  based  on  some  few  ob- 
scure passages  of  the  Bible,  which  may,  after  all,  be  capable 
of  a  different  interpretation." 


424  MAN    ONE   FAMILY. 

Such  is  the  line  of  argument  pursued  by  the  advocates 
of  diversity  of  races ;  and  certainly  they  make  out  a 
strong  case. 

Besides  all  this,  it  is  urged  that  the  white  race  alone 
have  recognized  marriage,  in  the  union  for  life  of  one 
man  and  one  woman.  Among  the  dark  races,  polygamy 
has  everywhere  and  always  prevailed.  This  furnishes 
another  and  a  decisive  difference  between  the  dark  races 
and  the  white,  bespeaking  a  difference  in  the  physical 
organization,  and  indicating  clearly  diversity  of  origin  ! 
(See  Democratic  Review,  July,  1860.) 

But  this  fails  to  furnish  a  distinct  mark  of  diversity. 
Had  polygamy  prevailed  uniformly  among  the  dark  races, 
everywhere,  and  never  among  Uie  white,  the  argument  would 
have  been  valid.  But  among  the  white  race,  as  truly  as 
among  the  dark,  polygamy  has  been  practised.  The  He- 
brews and  the  Arabs  are  confessedly  of  the  white  race ; 
yet  polygamy  long  prevailed  among  them. 

Revelation  discountenances  polygamy.  Among  the 
several  branches  of  the  white  race,  polygamy  has  been 
checked  by  the  teachings  of  revelation :  and  among  the 
dark  races  too,  just  so  far  as  revelation  has  been  intro- 
duced, polygamy  disappears,  and  the  law  of  marriage 
prevails.  No  specific  distinction  can,  therefore,  be  estab- 
lished on  this  ground,  between  the  dark  races  and  the 
white. 

Another  argument  for  a  diversity  of  races  among  men, 
and  for  a  diversity  of  origin  to  those  races,  is  thus  pre- 
sented by  Professor  Agassiz :  "  The  question,  with 
reference  to  the  races  of  men  is  this.  Have  the  differ- 
ences which  we  notice  among  the  different  races,  as  they 
now  exist,  been  produced  in  the  course  of  the  multipli- 


MAN   ONE   FAMILY.  425 

cation  and  diffusion  of  men  upon  the  earth,  or  are  these 
differences  primitive,  independent  of  physical  causes? 
Have  they  been  introduced  into  the  human  race  by  the 
Creator  himself,  or  has  nature  influenced  men  so  much, 
as  to  produce  this  diversity,  under  the  influence  of  those 
causes  which  act  in  the  physical  world  ?"  (p.  134.)  Again  : 
"  We  maintain  that,  in  the  Mosaic  record,  there  is  not  a 
single  passage  asserting  that  these  differences,  we  mean 
the  physical  differences  existing  among  men,  have  been 
derived  from  changes  introduced  in  a  primitively  more 
uniform  stock  of  men." 

"  The  circumstance,  (continues  Agassfz,)  that  wherever 
we  find  a  human  race  naturally  circumscribed,  it  is  con- 
nected in  its  limitation  with  what  we  call,  in  natural  his- 
tory, a  zoological  and  botanical  province,  that  is  to  say, 
with  the  natural  limitation  of  a  particular  association  of 
animals  and  plants^  shows  most  unequivocally,  the  inti- 
mate relation  subsistmg  between  mankind  and  the  ani- 
mal kiilgdom,  in  their  adaptation  to  the  physical  world. 
The  arctic  race  of  men,  covering  the  treeless  region  near  the 
arctics,  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  America,  is  circumscribed, 
in  the  three  continents,  within  limits  very  similar  to  those 
occupied  by  that  particular  combination  of  animals  which 
are  peculiar  to  the  same  tract  of  land  and  sea.  The  re- 
gion inhabited  by  the  Mongolian  race  is  also  a  natural 
zoological  province,  covered  by  a  combination  of  animals 
naturally  circumscribed  within  the  same  regions.  The 
Malay  race  covers  also  a  natural  zoological  province. 

"  New  Holland,  again,  constitutes  a  very  peculiar  zoo- 
logical province,  in  which  we  have  another  particular 
race  of  men.  And  it  is  further  remarkable,  in  this  con- 
nection, that  the  plants  and  animals  now  living  on  the  con- 


426  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

tin  en  t  of  Africa,  south  of  the  Atlas,  within  the  same  range 
within  whi<5h  the  negroes  are  naturally  circumscribed, 
have  a  character  differing  widely  from  that  of  the  plants 
and  animals  of  the  northern  shores  of  Africa,  and  the 
valley  of  Egypt :  while  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  within 
the  limits  inhabited  by  Hottentots,  is  characterized  by  a 
vegetation  and  a  fauna  equally  peculiar,  and  differing  in 
its  features  from  that  over  which  the  African  race  is  spread, 

"  Such  identical  circumscription  between  the  limits  of 
two  series  of  organized  beings^  so  widely  differing  as  man 
and  animals  and  plants,  and  so  entirely  unconnected  in 
point  of  descent,  would^  to  the  mind  of  a  iiaturalist^  amount 
to  a  demonstration^  tJiat  they  originated  together^  within  the 
districts  which  they  now  inhabit.  We  say  such  an  ac- 
cumulation of  evidence  would  amount  to  a  demonstration: 
for  how  could  it,  on  the  contrary,  be  supposed  that  man 
alone  would  assume  new  peculiarities,  and  features  so 
different  from  his  primitive  characteristics,  whilst  the  ani- 
mals and  plants,  circumscribed  within  the  same  limits, 
would  continue  to  preserve  their  natural  relations  to  the 
iauna  and  flora  of  other  parts  of  the  world  ? 

"  If  the  creator  of  one  set  of  these  living  beings  had  not 
been  also  the  creator  of  the  other,  and  if  we  did  not  trace 
the  same  general  laws  throughout  nature,  there  might  be 
room  left  for  the  supposition,  that,  while  men,  inhabiting 
different  parts  of  the  world,  originated  from  a  common 
centre,  the  plants  and  animals  now  associated  with  them 
in  the  same  countries,  originated  on  the  spot.  But  such 
inconsistencies  do  not  occur  in  the  laws  of  nature. 

"  The  coincidence  oftlie  geographical  distribution  of  the  hu- 
man races  with  that  of  animals^ — the  disconnection  of  the 
climatic  conditions  when  we  have  similar  races, — and  the 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  427 

connection  of  climatic  conditions  when  we  have  different 
human  races,  show  further,  that  the  adaptation  of  different 
races  of  men  to  different  parts  of  the  world  micst  be  intentional, 
as  well  as  that  of  other  beings  :  that  men  were  primitively 
heated  in  the  various  parts  of  the  world  they  inhabit,  and  that 
they  arose  everywhere  in  those  harmonious  numeric  pro- 
portions with  other  living  beings,  which  would  at  once 
secure  their  preservation,  and  contribute  to  their  welfare.* 

"To  suppose  that  all  men  originated  from  xidam  and 
Eve,  is  to  assume  that  the  order  of  creation  has  been  changed^ 
in  the  course  of  historical  times,  and  to  give  to  the  Mosaic 
record,  a  meaning  that  it  never  was  intended  to  have." 
(Christ.  Exam.  July,  1850,  pp.  185-148.) 

In  another  part  of  the  same  Essay,  Agassiz  says,  *'"We 
maintain  that,  like  all  other  organized  beings,  mankind 
cannot  have  originated  in  single  individuals,  but  must 
have  been  created  in  that  numeric  harmony  which  is  char- 
acteristic of  each  species :  men  must  have  originated  in  na- 
tions, as  the  bees  have  originated  in  swarms^     (Id.  p.  128.) 

This  is  certainly  explicit  enough. 

But,  against  this  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  different 
races  of  men,  as  thus  put  forth  by  Agassiz,  and  against 
the  arguments  he  here  adduces  to  sustain  it,  several 
weighty  objections  present  themselves. 

In  the  first  place,  this  theory  rests  wholly  on  assumption  ! 

Professor  Agassiz  first  states  the  facts.  These  are  ad- 
mitted by  all.     Different  varietiesf  of  men  exist;  and 

*  That  is  in  those  regions  where  wild  animals  sprang  forth  abundantly 
for  game,  men  appeared  as  spontaneous  products  of  the  soil,  in  propor- 
tionate numbers,  to  pursue  and  prey  on  them. 

t  It  may  be  proper  here  to  remind  the  reader  that  different  writers 
advocate  different  systems,  as  to  the  number  of  races  into  which  men 


428  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

these  different  varieties  are  found  existing  (most  gener- 
ally, but  not  always,  as  will  be  shown  directly)  each  in 
its  own  zoological  province,  (p.  13G.)  Thus  the  Arctic 
races  of  man  inhabit  the  treeless  region  near  the  Arctics, 
in  all  the  three  great  northern  continents,  a  region  hav- 
ing animals  and  plants  peculiar  to  itself,  and  found  no- 
where else.  The  negro,  in  Central  Africa,  occupies  an- 
other zoological  province  :  its  fauna  and  its  flora  are  pe- 
culiar, and  are  not  found  elsewhere.  The  Hottentots  in 
South  Africa  are  another  distinct  race,  surrounded  by  a 
fauna  and  a  flora  found  in  that  region  alone.     So  also  in 

should  be  devided.  The  great  Linnsens  divided  men  into  five  varieties — 
the  American,  European,  Asiatic,  African,  and  those  of  prseternatural 
conformation,  Albinoes  for  instance.  BufTon  contended  for  six  varieties; 
these  lie  afterwards  reduced  to  five.  The  scientific  Blumenbach  held  to 
five  varieties — a  classification  now,  perhaps,  most  generally  adopted. 
Cnvier  reduced  the  races  to  three,  leaving,  however,  several  varieties  uo- 
classifled.  Malte  Brun,  the  geographer,  proposes  sixteen  varieties.  The 
scientific  and  industrious  Dr.  Morton  of  Philadelphia,  whose  recent  death 
is  lamented  by  all  the  lovers  of  independent  research,  embraced  sub- 
stantially the  classification  of  Blumenbach,  reckoning  five  races.  (1,)  The 
Mongolian,  in  Asia  and  the  extreme  northern  America ;  (2,)  the  Caucar 
sian,  covering  Europe,  North  Africa,  together  with  Arabia,  Persia,  Asia 
Minor,  and  Ilindostan  in  Asia ;  (3,)  the  Malay,  in  Malacca,  Sumatra, 
Borneo,  and  a  few  other  islands  in  the  Southern  Ocean ;  (4,)  the  Amer- 
ican race,  covering  this  whole  continent  south  of  about  66°  of  north 
latitude  ;  (5,)  the  Etliiopian  race,  covering  all  Africa,  south  of  about  20° 
north  latitude,  together  with  New  Holland,  New  Guinea,  and  some  few 
of  the  isles  of  the  great  Southern  Ocean.  (Morton's  Cran.  Amer.  pp.  3- 
7,  and  map.)  This  five-fold  division  Professor  Agassiz  seems  mainly  to 
recognize,  although  he  makes  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  New  Holland 
each  the  seat  of  a  separate  race.  Dr.  Pickering,  of  the  United  States' 
Exploring  Expedition,  says,  on  the  contrary,  "  I  have  seen,  in  all,  eleven 
varieties  of  men ;  though  I  am  hardly  prepared  to  fix  a  positive  limit 
to  their  number."  (Pickering  on  Races,  p.  303.)  "  There  is,  1  conceive, 
no  middle  ground  between  the  admission  of  eleven  distinct  species  in  the 
human  family,  and  the  reduction  to  one."  (p.  306.) 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  429 

New  Holland  is  found  a  distinct  race,  and  the  animals 
and  tlie  plants  around  that  race,  are  peculiar  to  the  region 
they  occupy ! 

Now,  says  Professor  Agassiz,  "  As  these  plants  and  ani- 
mals originated  luhere  they  are  found^  and  did  not  reach 
these  several  regions  by  radiating  from  some  other  centre 
till  they  came  there,  why  should  not  these  several  races 
of  men  have  originated  in  the  regions  they  severally  oc- 
cupy, and  to  which,  and  to  the  fauna  and  the  flora  thereof, 
they  are  severally  adapted  ?  If  man  alone  originated  in 
one  common  centre,  and  thence  radiated  over  the  earth, 
while  other  animals  originated  where  they  now  exist, 
this  would  be  an  inconsistency  in  the  laivs  ofnatiireP  (Christ. 
Exam.  p.  137.) 

Here  it  is  first  assumed  that  the  fauna  (^.  e.  the  animals, 
the  living  creatures,)  of  the  several  zoological  provinces, 
originated  there,  as  truly  as  did  the  flora,  i.  e.  the  plants. 

But  now,  of  this  origination  of  all  the  animals  on  the 
ground  they  now  occupy,  this  creation  of  animals  in  the 
several  different  localities  where  they  now  exist,  the  pro- 
fessor gives  no  proof — he  can  give  none.  However 
probable  such  creation  of  all  animals  in  their  several 
native  localities  may  appear  in  the  eyes  of  a  naturalist, 
it  is  probability  at  the  most.  Certain,  it  is  not — proved^ 
it  cannot  he. 

But  this  creation,  which  at  the  best  is  but  a  probable 
sujjposition^  the  professor  here  assumes  as  a  certain  truth, 
a  kind  of  axiom. 

And  yet  the  Bible  seems,  at  least,  to  teach  otherwise,  so 
far  as  tlie  fauna  of  all  eartKs  regions  is  concerned  :  else  why 
were  pairs  and  septuples  of  all  living  creatures  sheltered 
with  Noah  in  the  ark,  for  the  declared  purpose  "  to  keep 


430  MAN   ONE   FAMILY. 

seed  alive  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,^'  (Gen.  vii.  3,)  till 
after  the  subsidence  of  that  mighty  flood,  in  which,  God 
himself  declared,  "every  living  substance  that  I  have 
made,  will  I  destroy  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth."  (Gen. 
vii.  4.)  Professor  Agassiz  avows  a  profound  respect  for 
the  Mosaic  record.  (See  pp.  Ill,  138.)  If  the  6th  and 
7th  chapters  of  Genesis  be  not  mere  myth,  it  is  difficult 
to  conceive  how  the  Mosaic  record  can  be  reconciled  with 
the  position,*  that  all  the  several  fauna,  in  the  several 
zoological  provinces  now  found  on  our  globe,  originated 
in  those  localities,  and  did  not  radiate  from  another  and 
a  distant  centre,  till  they  reached  their  present  localities. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  the  original  production  of  animals  in 
the  several  zoological  provinces  they  now  occupy,  is  as- 
sumed  by  Agassiz,  without  proof;  and  therefore  the  ar- 
gument for  the  origin  of  the  several  races  of  men  in 
their  several  localities,  being  thus  based  on  a  mere  as- 
sumption, unproved,  and  incapable  of  proof,  is  utterly 
yoid  of  force. 

Similar  baseless  assumption  vitiates  many  of  the  argu- 
ments employed  by  the  advocates  of  diversity  of  origin 
for  the  several  races  of  men. 

Again,  2d.  In  his  mode  of  treating  this  subject,  Professor 
Agassiz  is  inconsistent  with  his  avowed  principles. 

He  begins  by  declaring  that  the  question  of  the  unity 
or  diversity  of  race  among  men,  is  one  of  science  merely, 

*  The  author  cannot  but  express  his  regret  to  notice  that  Dr.  Smythe 
seems  to  countenance  the  idea  of  some  animals  not  destroyed  in  the 
deluge.  (See  his  Preface,  p.  xxiii.  8,  a.)  Dr.  Bachioan,  also,  seems  to  aban- 
don the  universality  of  the  deluge.  (See  his  chap,  xvii.)  Stillingfleet 
(Origines  Sacrae,  b.  iii.  chap.  iv.  vol.  ii.  pp.  104, 105)  and  Dr.  J.  Pye  Smith, 
admit  only  a  local  inundation.  The  reasoning  of  these  authors  to  main- 
tain this  position,  is  far  from  being  conclusive. 


MAN   ONE   FAMILY.  431 

and  is  to  be  discussed  on  grounds  purely  and  exclusively 
scientific,  (p.  110.)  And  yet  he  soon  begins  to  reason 
from  the  Bible,  and  attempts  to  show  that  his  views  are 
not  in  contradiction  of  the  Bible ;  and  he  hesitates  not  to 
offer  a  novel*  interpretation,  as  the  true  and  the  only 
true  meaning  of  the  Bible  record  on  this  subject,  (pp.  134, 
135,  138.)  This  is  inconsistent ;  but  it  is  an  inconsisten- 
cy not  unusual  with  the  opponents  of  the  unity  of  the 
races.  (See  Two  Lectures,  &c.  1844,  Introduction,  p.  3. 
lb.  1849,  p.  7.) 

Once  more,  (3.)  The  theory  of  Agassiz  is  imperfect ;  it  is 
indeed  inconsistent  with  itself  On  this  theory  Genesis 
furnishes  an  account  of  the  origin  and  early  history  of  the 
white  race  of  man.  That  account  distinctly  ascribes  the 
race  it  treats  of  to  an  origin  from  one  single  human  pair, 
Adam  and  Eve. 

Yet  Agassiz  contends  mankind  could  not  have  origi- 
nated in  single  individuals  ;  they  must  have  originated  in 
nations^  as  bees  in  swarms.  This  declaration  is  without 
restriction,  it  covers  the  whole  of  mankind,  one  race  just 
as  truly  as  another.  If  this  declaration  of  Agassiz  be 
true,  then  no  one  of  all  the  several  races  of  men  could 
have  originated  in  single  individuals,  or  otherwise  than  in 
nations;  yet  he  admits  the  authority  of  Genesis,  and 
Genesis,  on  his  theory,  declares  that  the  white  race,  at 
least,  originated  in  single  individuals,  the  one  sole  primi- 
tive pair,  Adam  and  Eve.     Here  is  an  obvious  and  a 

*  It  is  a  novel  and  a  bold  position  that  Prof.  A.  takes,  in  asserting  that 
"  made  of  one  bbod,''  Acts  xvii.  26,  applied  to  men  of  all  nations,  relates 
not  at  all  to  a  genital  connection,  to  affinity  by  ties  of  blood  and  descent, 
but  to  the  higher  union  found  in  similarity  of  the  moral  and  the  intel- 
lectual nature. 


432  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

glaring  inconsistency ;  a  contrariety  between  the  autllo^ 
ity  acknowledged  by  Agassiz,  and  his  own  scheme. 

Now  which  of  the  two  is  to  be  believed,  Professor 
Agassiz,  or  Moses  ? 

Again,  4th.  His  theory  is  inconsistent  vnth  itself  in  an- 
other and  a  most  important  respect.  Thus,  p.  136,  he  says, 
"  Wherever  we  find  a  human  race  naturally  circum- 
scribed, it  is  connected  in  its  location  with  what  we  call, 
in  natural  history,  a  zoological  and  botanical  province ; 
that  is  to  say,  with  the  natural  limitation  of  a  particular 
association  of  animals  and  plants ;  and  this,"  (he  adds,) 
**  shows  most  unequivocally  the  intimate  relation  exist- 
ing between  mankind  and  the  animal  kingdom,  in  their 
adaptation  to  the  physical  world ;"  and  he  instances  the 
Arctic  race  of  men,  the  Mongolian,  the  Negro,  the  Hot- 
tentot, and  the  New  Hollander,  each  race  occupying  its 
own  peculiar  zoological  province.  To  show  more  clearly 
that  each  race  is  thus  closely  connected  with  the  fauna 
and  flora  of  the  region  it  occupies,  and  that  this  distinc- 
tion of  race  is  not  produced,  nor  affected  by  climate.  Pro- 
fessor A.  refers  us  to  China,  and  to  corresponding  lati- 
tudes in  Africa  and  in  America,  and  also  to  New  Holland 
and  the  extreme  south  of  Africa  and  of  America,  where, 
in  the  regions  so  compared,  the  climate  is  very  similar, 
but  where  the  races  of  men  differ  most  from  each  other, 
and  where  a  corresponding  difference  is  found  in  the 
fauna  and  the  flora  of  these  countries. 

All  this  is  certainly  true,  so  far  as  it  goes ;  and  if  the 
reasoning  of  Prof.  A.  from  these  facts  be  correct,  then  we 
shall  find  that  each  race  of  men  inhabits  its  oivn  peculiar 
and  appropriate  zoological  province  ;  the  argument  being, 
that  each  race  is  constitutionally  adapted  to  the  region  it 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  433 

occupies,  and  to  the  animal  and  vegetable  productions  of 
that  particular  region.  They  all  originated  together  in  the 
same  locality.  They  were  created  with  a  mutual  adaptation 
the  one  to  the  other.  Thus  the  negro  is  not  adapted  to  the 
fauna  and  the  flora  of  South  Africa,  nor  the  Hottentot  to 
those  of  central  Africa.  But  if  this  be  so,  how  comes  it, 
that  on  this  great  western  continent,  throughout  its 
whole  vast  length  and  breadth,  stretching  almost  from 
pole  to  pole,  is  found  everywhere  spread,  native  to  the 
soil,  the  one  race^  the  aboriginal  American?  the  red  man 
of  the  forest  ?  the  common  American  Indian  ? 

Professor  Agassiz  does  himself  testify,  "  It  has  been 
satisfactoril}^  established,  that  over  the  whole  continent* 
of  America,  south  of  the  Arctic  zone,  (which  is  inhabited 
by  Esquimaux.)  all  the  numerous  tribes  of  Indians  have 
the  same  physical  character;  that  they  belong  to  the 
same  race  from  north  to  south,  and  that  the  primitive  in- 
habitants of  central  tropical  America,  do  not  physically 
differ  from  the  primitive  inhabitants  of  the  more  northern 
or  southern  regions."  "  In  this  case  we  have  the  great- 
est uniformity  in  the  character  of  the  tribes  of  an  entire 
continent,f  under  the  most  different  climatic  influences. 
But,  in  their  physical  peculiarities  these  tribes  differ  as 
well  from  the  Africans,  as  from  the  Asiatic  tribes,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  New  Holland."    (p.  126.) 

In  this  instance  we  find  one  race  covering  a  vastly  ex- 
tended region  of  country,  which  must  comprise  several 

*  In  this  general  remark,  (says  Agassiz,)  the  isolated  case  of  Mongo- 
lians stranded  on  the  western  shores  of  America,  as  far  as  they  are  well 
authenticated,  are,  of  course,  excepted. 

t  See  also,  Pickering  on  the  Races,  p.  16.  Bachman's  Doctrine  of  the 
Unity  of  the  Human  Races,  pp.  269,  272. 

19 


434  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

various  zoological  and  botanical  provinces.  For,  surely, 
no  one  will  contend  that  Patagonia  and  Mexico,  Brazil 
and  New  England,  Oregon  and  the  cotton-growing  states 
of  the  South  present  all  and  severally,  one  and  the  same 
fauna  and  flora. 

Here,  then,  is  an  exception,  fatal,  as  it  would  seem,  to 
the  theory  of  Professor  Agassiz.  For,  if  one  and  the 
same  race  of  men  are  found  flourishing  and  indigenous 
in  different  regions,  characterized  by  different  groups  of 
animal  and  vegetable  organizations,  as  well  as  by  widely 
variant  climates,  then  clearly  there  is  no  such  adaptation 
in  the  constitution  of  any  human  race,  to  the  animal  and 
vegetable  groups  by  which  it  may  be  found  surrounded, 
as  to  warrant  the  argument  from  the  fact,  (even  were  it 
a  demonstrated  fact,  which  it  is  not,)  that  those  animal 
groups  originated  in  that  locality,  to  the  origination  of 
that  human  group  also,  in  the  same  locality. 

There  is  plainly  no  essential  connection  between  the 
different  races  of  men,  and  the  zoological  provinces  they 
may  be  found  occupying,  any  more  than  there  is  between 
those  races  and  the  climatic  influences  that  may  surround 
them.  This,"  the  extension  of  the  one  aboriginal  race 
over  the  entire  American  continent,  north  and  south, 
plainly  shows.  The  theory  of  Professor  Agassiz  is  in- 
consistent with  itself;  it  is  based  on  only  a  partial  view, 
and  an  incorrect  classification  of  the  facts  in  the  case  ;  it 
cannot  stand. 

From  these  facts,  therefore,  it  follows  also,  that,  even 
if  men  originated  from  a  common  centre,  and  spread  over 
the  earth,  radiating  from  that  common  centre,  (pp.  126, 
127,)  their  present  differences  cannot  be  accounted  for 
by,  or  be  owing  solely  to,  influences  that  arise  out  of  pe- 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  435 

culiarities  of  climate  and  mode  of  life.  Because,  in  re- 
gions where  these  peculiarities  are  alike,  races  the  most 
dissimilar  are  found  :  and  over  regions  where  these  pecu- 
liarities are  widely  dissimilar,  the  same  race  is  found  to 
prevail,  as  in  America.  We  may,  therefore,  adopt  the 
opinions  of  Agassiz  on  this  point,  and  say,  (p.  127,)  We 
can  see  hut  one  conclusion  to  he  drawn  from  these  facts^  viz. 
that  these  races  cannot  have  assumed  their  peculiar  fea- 
tures after*  they  had  migrated  into  these  countries  from 
,a  supposed  common  centre.  "  We  must^  therefore^  seek  an- 
other explanation^ 

We  may  also  adopt  another  conclusion  of  Agassiz,  viz. 
"  The  adaptation  of  different  races  of  men  to  different  parts 
of  the  world  must  he  intentional^  as  well  as  that  of  other 
beings,"  (p.  137.) 

For,  that  there  is  an  adaptation  of  man  to  the  circum- 
stances in  which  he  is  placed,  and  an  adaptation  of  those 
circumstances  to  man,  who  is  surrounded  and  affected  by 
them,  admits  of  no  question  ;  although  we  may  fail  to 
detect  wherein,  precisely,  that  adaptation  lies.  It  is  not 
in  climate,  nor  in  climatic  influence,  nor  in  association 
with  any  one  particular  group  of  surrounding  animals, 
or  any  particular  class  of  vegetable  productions;  as  we 
have  just  seen.  Yet,  somewhere,  there  must  doubtless 
lie  reasons,  why  one  race  of  men  exists  and  flourishes 
best  in  one  region,  and  another  race  in  another  locality. 

Still,  then,  the  inquiry  recurs.  Why  is  it  that  different 

*  This  language  is  perhaps  stronger  than  the  facts  will  warrant.  The 
facts  do  not  prove  that  the  changes  did  not  take  place  after  migration 
thither :  but  the  facts  do  prove  that  the  changes  were  not  the  consequence 
of  such  migration ;  i.  e.  were  not  occasioned  by  the  influences  into  which 
such  migration  brought  them :  i.  e.  the  change  is  not  the  effect  of  climate. 


486  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

races  of  men  are  found  in  different  regions  of  the  earth  ? 
Were  they  created  where  they  are  now  found  ?  Or  have 
they  originated  at  some  other  point,  and  gradually  spread 
abroad  over  the  earth  ?  If  this  latter  be  the  true  solu- 
tion, then  how  did  these  diversities  arise  ?  Are  they  the 
result  of  natural  causes,  slowly  operating?  Or  were  they 
impressed  on  the  human  family  by  a  direct  intervention 
of  the  Creator?  If,  so,  when  and  where  did  this  inter- 
vention take  place  ? 

As  to  the  origin  of  man,  or  of  the  inferior  creation, 
reason  can  furnish  no  decision. 

This  is  a  point  beyond  the  legitimate  range  of  scien- 
tific investigation. 

The  existence,  the  distinctive  characteristics,  the  quali- 
ties, the  habits,  the  locality,  and  the  mutual  relations  one 
to  another,  of  the  several  races  of  man,  and  of  the  fauna 
and  the  flora  of  the  several  regions,  or  zoological  prov- 
inces where  these  different  races  of  man  are  found,  are 
all  subjects  for  scientific  research,  and  scientific  reasoning. 
But  the  origin  of  things — of  the  lowest  brute  and  of  the 
meanest  herb,  just  as  truly  as  of  man  himself,  lies  back 
of  human  observation  and  human  consciousness.  No 
mortal  was  present  at  the  creation,  to  witness  the  mode 
or  the  place  in  which  any  creature  originated.  No  mor- 
tal has  ever  seen  a  new  order  of  plants  or  of  animals 
brought  into  existence. 

Animals,  and  plants,  and  diflfering  varieties  of  men 
are  found  existing,  in  certain  localities,  possessed  of  cer- 
tain distinctive  qualities,  and  exhibiting  certain  numeri- 
cal proportions,  and  bearing  certain  obvious  relations  to 
each  other,  and  to  the  locality  wherein  they  are  found. 
These  are  facls^  which  may  be  observed,  and  classified, 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  437 

and  used  as  the  basis  of  reasoning,  respecting  the  nature, 
the  uses,  and  the  relative  importance  of  these  several  ob- 
jects ;  but,  as  to  the  origin  of  any  of  these  plants,-  ani- 
mals, or  races  of  men,  the  facts  observed  yield  no  infor- 
mation. On  the  origin  of  the  smallest  animalculse, 
science,  with  all  her  boasted  attainments,  is  incapable  of 
throwing  any  light.  We  may  conjecture,  we  may  even 
make  it  appear  probable,  that  men  originated  in  nations 
as  bees  in  swarms  ;  or  that  men  originated  in  the  locali- 
ties they  now  occupy ;  or  that  all  these  several  races 
originated  at  some  one  central  point,  and  thence  radiated 
gradually  over  the  earth,  till  they  reached  the  localities 
where  they  are  now  found  ;  but,  beyond  a  probable  con- 
jecture, science  herself  cannot  go."^ 

When,  therefore,  a  naturalist  so  justly  distinguished  as 
is  Professor  Agassiz,  talks  of  evidence  on  this  subject 
amounting,  in  the  mind  of  a  naturalist,  to  demonstration^ 
that  man  originated  thus  and  so,  it  is  plain  that,  for  once, 
this  eminent  philosopher  ha^  forgotten  the  cool  caution  of 
sound  science. 

Eeasoning  on  man,  merely  as  a  subject  of  natural  his- 

*  On  this  subject  the  learned  Johannes  Miiller,  pronounced  by  Hum- 
boldt (Cosmos,  vol.  i.  p.  353)  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  anatomists  of 
the  day,  thus  writes :  "  Whether  the  human  races  have  descended  from 
several  primitive  races  of  men,  or  from  one  alone,  is  a  question  that  can- 
not be  determined  from  experience."    (Physiologic  des  Menschen.) 

Miiller  is  unquestionably  right.  Neither  experience  nor  science  can 
determine  this  point. 

William  Von  Humbold  also  says :  "  The  first  origin  of  mankind  is  a 
phenomenon  wholly  beyond  the  sphere  of  experience."  Again  :  "  A  so- 
lution of  these  difficult  questions  cannot  be  determined  by  inductive 
reasoning,  or  experience."    (Cosmos,  i.  p.  355.) 

These  learned  men  are  right.  Revelation  alone  can  determine  the  so- 
lution of  these  recondite  points. 


438  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

tory,  this  distinguished  naturalist  concludes,  that  the  dif- 
ferent races  could  not  have  originated  from  one  pair,  nor 
from  a  common  centre,  but  rather,  that  mankind  origi- 
nated in  groups,  or  nations,  as  bees  in  swarms  ;  and  that 
each  race  originated  in  the  locality  where  now  it  exists, 
as  did  the  fauna  around  it. 

In  reaching  this  conclusion,  we  think  he  reasons  from 
insufficient,  and  indeed  from  false  premises. 

We  believe  that  the  brute  creation  did  not  originate 
in  the  several  countries  where  now  they  flourish.  But, 
even  were  that  point  conceded,  his  reasoning  is  not  con- 
clusive. He  regards  man  as  a  mere  animal,  and  bases 
his  reasoning  upon  the  merely  animal  nature  of  man. 
He  says,  it  would  be  an  inconsistency  unprecedented  in 
nature's  laws,  if,  all  other  animals  around  him  originating 
where  they  are,  man  alone  should  have  sprung  from  a 
common  centre  elsewhere,  and  thence  radiated  to  the 
points  he  now  holds. 

Were  man  possessed  of  an  animal  nature  merely,  this 
reasoning  might  hold  good.  But,  in  many  and  most 
important  respects,  man  is  different  from,  and  superior 
to,  all  other  animals.  He  alone  is  a  cosmopolite,*  capa- 
ble of  living  and  flourishing  in  all  climates,  and  in  all 
countries.  He  alone  is  possessed  of  reason,  and  of  a 
moral  nature,  qualifying  him  to  find  motives  for  settling 
in  some  places,  and  avoiding  others ;  and  enabling  him 
also  to  adapt  himself  to  the  circumstances  around  him, 
and  to  render  circumstances  seemingly  unfavorable,  trib- 
utary to  his  safety  and  his  comfort. 

If,  now,  it  is  no  inconsistency  in  nature's  laws,  (as  it 
certainly  is  not,  since  the  difference  does  exist,)  that  man 
♦  "  Principles  of  Zoology,"  by  Agassiz  and  Oould,  chap.  xiii.  $  1,  p.  164. 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  489 

should  differ  thus  widely  from  all  other  animals,  it  can- 
not be  an  inconsistency  in  these  laws,  that  man  should 
differ  also  in  his  origin;  that  he  (however  mere  animals 
may  have  originated)  should  have  sprung  from  one  pair, 
and  have  radiated  from  one  common  centre.     Differing 
in  so  many  other  and  important  respects  from  all  animals, 
reason  might  seem  rather  to  infer  that  man  should  have 
differed  from  them  also  in  the  mode  of  his  origin  ;  and  that 
the  very  fact  of  man's  having  so  many  distinctive  pecu- 
liarities appertaining  to  him  as  man,  and  constituting  a 
wide  difference  between  man  and  all  mere  brute  animals, 
springs  from  and  proves  a  mode  of  origin  in  man  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  brutes.     The  Mosaic  record  accounts 
well  for  this  superiority  in  man.     Man  was  formed  more 
immediately  by  the  hand  of  his  Maker,  and  his  life  was 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  by  the  very  breath  of  God. 
The  brute  animals  all  issued  from  the  teeming  bosom 
of  the  earth,  at  the  fiat  of  the  Creator. 

Most  of  the  errors  of  naturalists  in  relation  to  man, 
spring  from  this  one  mistake.  Because  man  is  possessed 
of  an  animal  nature,  therefore  they  regard  him,  and  rea- 
son about  him,  just  as  if  he  were  an  animal  merely. 
They  lose  sight  entirely  of  his  higher  nature,  as  rational 
and  moral,  although  this  his  higher  nature  may  be  rea- 
sonably expected  to  affect  his  condition,  his  destiny,  and 
everything  relating  to  him,  not  excepting  his  origin.  But, 
after  all,  reason  cannot  decide  this  question :  and  if  we 
can  find  no  better  guidance  than  mere  science  can  ex- 
tend to  us,  the  question  as  to  the  origin  of  man,  whether 
in  one  place  or  in  many,  whether  in  groups  and  nations 
or  from  one  sole  original  pair,  must  ever  remain  an  in- 


440  MAN   ONE   FAMILY. 

scrutable  mystery,  "  lost  in  the  darkness  oftJie  heginning  of 
the  world J^ 

This  obscure  point  none  but  the  Creator  himself  can 
elucidate.  This  elucidation  is,  as  we  believe,  furnished 
in  the  Bible,  which  is  shown,  by  a  long  array  of  varied 
and  accumulative  evidence,  to  be  an  inspired  book,  the 
very  Word  of  God. 

The  Bible  teaching  on  this  subject  is  briefly  given,  but 
it  is  very  plain,  as  thus : 

After  recording  the  reduction  of  our  globe  from  a  state 
of  wild  chaos,  and  its  being  covered  with  vegetation,  illu- 
mined by  the  heavenly  orbs,  and  peopled  with  its  various 
animal  tribes,  in  a  series  of  creative  acts,  which  were  ex- 
tended through  a  period  of  six  consecutive  days,  Moses 
tells  us  that  on  the  sixth  of  those  days  God  created  man, 
(Adam,  I'homme,  I'espece  humaine,  singulier  collectif, 
says  Cahen,*)  forming  out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground  one 
rnan,  Adam,  and  then  forming  also  one  woman  whom  he 
gave  to  the  man  as  his  wife ;  and  on  these,  the  first  and 
only  pair  created  by  his  own  hand,  God  pronounced  the 
blessing  of  fertility,  "  Be  ye  fruitful^  and  multiply,  and  re- 
plenish the  earth,  and  subdue  it ;"  and  he  gave  them  also 
dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowls  of 
the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon 
the  earth,"  Gen.  i.  28.  Thus,  we  are  told,  God  created 
man,  {Adam,  the  term  is  generic,  designating  the  human 
race,  ^'' singulier  collectif,'''  says  Cahen,)  male  and  female 
created  he  them.  Gen.  i.  27. 

The  whole  passage  conveys  the  idea  that  this  is  the 
account  of  the  origin  of  the  human  race.  No  hint  is  given 
by  Moses,  nor  is  any  intimation  found  in  any  other  part 
*  La  Bible,  Traduction  Nouvelle,  par  M.  Cahen,  Paris,  1832. 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  441 

of  the  Bible,  that  other  men,  or  other  human  beings  were 
produced  on  earth,  saving  only  this  one  primitive  pair, 
and  their  descendants. 

Ere  long  we  read  of  the  temptation  of  this  first  human 
pair,  and  of  their  fall  by  sin.  The  result  of  this  event 
was  that  their  offspring  were,  like  themselves,  depraved. 
After  his  sin  Adam  begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness, 
(Gen.  V.  3,)  i.  e.  inclined  to  evil,  not  holy,  not  in  the 
image  of  God.     That  image  Adam  had  lost  by  sin. 

Now  it  is  abundantly  plain  that  this  depravity  of 
nature,  this  proneness  to  evil  rather  than  to  good,  apper- 
tains, to  this  *very  day,  and  it  has  always,  and  every- 
where, apperilined  to  man,  and  to  all  men  of  all  coun- 
tries, and  of  all  the  now  differing  races  of  men.  No  per- 
fect character  has  ever  appeared  among  men,  saving  only 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  This  universal  depravity  of  men  is 
fully  accounted  for  on  the  supposition  that  all  men  of  all 
races  are  descended  from  one  and  the  same  primitive 
pair.  But,  reject  that  doctrine,  and  you  have  the  fact  of 
man's  depravity  still  existing,  but  existing  as  a  fact  un- 
accountable, and  inexplicably  mysterious. 

The  Bible  teaches,  also,  that  after  the  lapse  of  some 
centuries  from  the  creation  of  man,  such  was  the  great 
wickedness  of  mankind,  that  God  found  it  necessary  to 
sweep  away  the  impious  race  by  a  general  deluge,  from 
which  one  family  alone,  consisting  of  eight  persons,  was 
saved.  Noah,  with  his  three  sons  and  their  wives,  were 
the  sole  survivors  of  that  universal  calamity ;  and  from 
them  and  their  descendants  was  the  earth  again  replen- 
ished with  inhabitants.  Consequently,  all  men,  now  on 
earth  must  be  the  descendants  of  Noah. 

But  mankind  are  now  found  exhibiting  great  diversity 

19* 


442  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

of  complexion,  form,  structure,  and  habits,  which  con- 
stitute distinctive  marks  of  different  varieties  or  races. 

These  races  are  found  occupying  each  its  own  peculiar 
portion  of  the  earth's  surface ;  each  race  is  invariably 
propagated  by  hereditary  descent ;  and  among  these 
races  a  great  variety  of  different  languages  are  spoken. 

For  this  diversity  of  language  and  of  race  also,  the  Mosaic 
narrative  furnishes  a  solution. 

When  the  descendants  of  Noah  were  on  the  plains  of 
Shinar,  they  united  together  to  erect  a  tower  at  Babel,  on 
purpose  to  keep  together,  and  to  avoid  ^^  being  scattered 
abroad  over  thefaceofHie  lohole  earth^^^  Gen.  xi.  4. 

To  defeat  this  purpose,  and  to  ensure  the  dispersion  of 
man  over  the  surface  of  the  whole  earth,  (see  Gen.  xi. 
5-9,)  the  Creator  did  himself  interfere,  by  a  direct  and 
preternatural  exertion  of  his  own  power,  so  as  to  pro- 
duce diversity  of  language,  and  to  effect  the  dispersion 
of  man  into  all  the  different  countries  and  different  cli- 
mates over  the  face  of  all  the  earth. 

If,  then,  as  naturalists  tell  us,  the  peculiarities  in  the 
complexion,  the  osteological  structure,  the  muscular  de- 
velopment, the  nervous  system,  the  veins,  the  arterial  ar- 
rangement, and  the  respiratory  organs,  as  well  as  in  the 
cuticular  secretions,  existing  in  the  different  races  as  now 
found,  be  necessarily*  connected  with  the  zoological 
provinces  in  which  these  several  races  of  men  are  now 
seen  naturally  existirfg  and  best  flourishing,  and  with 
the  influences  which  there  surround  them ;  if,  also,  the 
languages  spoken  by  the  several  races  of  men,  differ  in 
the  same  proportion  as  their  organs  of  speech  are  variously 
modified;  and  if,  as  we  freely  admit  with  Professor 
*  See  Agassiz  in  Christ.  Examiner,  July,  1850,  pp.  136, 137. 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  443 

Agassiz,*  "  the  adaptation  of  different  races  of  men  to  different 
jparts  of  the  world  he  intentional^^'*  on  the  part  of  the  Cre- 
ator, then  inasmuch  as,  instead  of  the  creation  of  these 
several  races  of  men,  with  all  their  distinctive  peculiar- 
ities upon  them  as  now,  each  in  the  locality  where  now  it 
is  found,  as  Agassiz  supposes,  Moses  informs  us  that,  at 
Babel,  God  himself  did  directly  interfere,  in  order  to  pro- 
duce, in  the  one  uniform  stock  of  Noah's  descendants, 
the  sole  survivors  of  the  deluge,  a  variety  of  languages, 
and  the  dispersion  and  settlement  of  different  branches 
of  this  one  primitive  stock,  in  all  regions  and  all  climates 
over  the  face  of  all  the  earth :  and  if,  as  none  will  deny,  what- 
ever God  does.  He  does  effectually,  so  as  to  secure  the  at- 
tainment of  the  object  aimed  at;  it  follows  clearly,  that 
the  difference  of  complexion,  of  anatomical  structure,  and 
of  constitutional  peculiarities  in  different  branches  of 
mankind,  as  now  found,  being  necessary  to  produce  di- 
versity of  language,  and  to  effect  dispersion  into  all  cli- 
mates, (or  at  least  being  a  necessary  incident  to  such  dis- 
persion,) the  intervention  of  God  at  Babel  did  certainly 
secure  them  all. 

This  occurrence  at  Babel  was,  therefore,  the  time,  and 
this  the  occasion,  in  which  the  Creator  himself  did  mi- 
raculously interfere,  to  produce,  in  a  primitively  more 
uniform  race,  all  the  changes  necessary  to  constitute  the 
various  races  now  found. 

The  passage  of  Scripture  demanded  by  Professor 
Agassiz  in  his  challenge  (p.  134,)  is  here  presented,  in 
Gen.  xi.  5-9.  The  introduction  of  a  constitutional  law 
in  man's  very  nature,  to  secure,  sooner  or  later,  all  the 
varieties  now  found  among  men,  and  necessary  to  adapt 

*  See  Christ.  Exam.  July,  1850,  p.  137. 


444  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

these  several  races  to  their  several  localities  in  the  zoo- 
logical provinces  they  have  permanently  occupied,  did 
take  place  at  Babel,  if  Moses  wrote  the  truth,  and  if  the 
principles  laid  down  by  Agassiz  himself,  and  by  other 
naturalists  be  correct.  All  that  was  necessary  to  secure 
the  end  he  aimed  at,  was  certainly  known  to  God ;  and 
everything  so  necessary,  he  was  able  to  do. 

Moses  says  that  God  did,  at  Babel,  directly  and  miracu- 
lously interfere,  to  produce  diversity  of  languages,  and  to 
effect  the  dispersion  of  mankind  ^^  abroad  upon  the  face  of 
all  the  earthJ''  Mankind  are  now  found  actually  speaking 
different  languages ;  and  found,  too,  spread  "  abroad  upon 
the  face  of  all  Hie  earths 

But  mankind  are  found  also,  presenting  great  diversity 
of  appearance,  and  of  structure,  in  these  different  coun- 
tries; so  that  they  are  divided  into  different  varieties  or 
races,  each  race  being  adapted  to  the  region  it  occupies, 
and  to  the  fauna  and  the  flora  found  in  that  region. 

If  so,  then  this  adaptation  is  inseparably  connected 
with  this  dispersion.  The  purpose  to  disperse  man, 
whether  to  disperse  him  from  and  in  his  first  creation,  or 
subsequently  to  the  creation,  must,  therefore,  have  inclu- 
ded the  purpose  to  produce  in  man  the  peculiarities  of  his 
physical  constitution,  necessary  to  his  being  so  dispersed. 
Moreover  the  execution  of  this  purpose  to  disperse  men 
abroad  over  all  the  earth,  must  have  included^  tJie  produc- 
tion in  man  of  this  adaptedness  of  his  physical  organiza- 
tion to  live  and  flourish  in  the  several  regions  over  which 
he  was  to  be  dispersed. 

Agassiz  supposes  that  this  execution  of  the  purpose  to 
disperse  man  over  all  the  earth,  took  place  in  the  original 
production  of  the  several  races,  distinct  as  now,  in  nations, 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  445 

as  bees  in  swarms,  in  the  localities  where  they  are  now 
found. 

But  Moses  tells  us  that  at  Babel,  this  purpose  to  dis- 
perse man  over  all  the  earth  was  ejffected,  and  that  by  a 
great  change  wrought  upon  the  mass  of  mankind^  who 
were  all  the  descendants  of  the  one  family  of  Noah. 

If  Moses  is  to  be  believed,  this  constitutional  difference 
in  man,  which  produced  diversity  in  the  organs  of  speech, 
which  resulted  in  the  dispersion  of  mankind  into  all 
countries  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  as  they  are  now 
found,  and  which  must  have  included  all  that  constitutes 
the  diversity  of  the  races,  without  which  men  could  not 
live  dispersed  abroad  ^^  over  the  face  of  all  the  earth  J  ^  was 
miraculously  effected  by  the  Creator  himself  at  Babel. 
(See  Gen.  xi.  5-9.) 

Keasoning  from  the  principles  laid  down  by  naturalists 
themselves,  therefore,  it  is  plain,  the  challenge  of  the 
scientific  Agassiz  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  that 
there  is  a  passage  in  the  Scriptures,  pointing,  by  necessary 
and  inevitable  inference,  at  "those  physical  differences 
which  we  notice  between  the  white  race  and  the  Chinese, 
the  New  Hollanders,  the*  Malays,  the  American  Indians 
and  the  Negroes,  as  having  been  introduced,  in  the  course 
of  time,  among  the  children  of  Adam  and  Eve,"*  even 
though  the  distinction  between  the  dark  races  and  the 
white,  is  not  there  either  formally  made,  or  alluded  to  in 
express  terms. 

If  the  Caucasian,  or  white  race  alone  be  noticed  in  the 
earlier  history  of  Genesis,  what  sense  can  be  attached  to 
the  narrative  given  in  the  11th  chapter  of  Genesis,  re- 
specting the  confounding  of  the  language  of  all  the  earth, 
*  Christian  Examiner  for  July,  1850,  pp.  134,  135. 


446  MAN   ONE  FAMILY. 

at  Babel  ?  Do  the  branches  of  the  white  race  alone  speak 
varying  tongues  ?  Is  the  white  race  alone  scattered  abroad 
upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth  f 

Inextricable  confusion  and  absurdity  result  from  the 
attempt  to  restrict  the  history  given  in  Genesis,  to  the 
Caucasian  race  exclusively.  No  man,  who  has  not  some 
favorite  theory  to  uphold,  would  think  of  so  restricting 
it.  The  circumstances  mentioned  in  the  narrative  itself, 
and  the  tenor  and  spirit  of  the  whole  Bible  go  to  show, 
that  that  history  details  the  origin  of  the  wlwle  family  of 
mauj  from  Adam  in  Eden,  and  from  Noah  after  the 
deluge ;  and  that  at  Babel  we  have  an  account  of  the 
origin  of  all  the  diversity  of  languages  now  prevailing, 
and  with  it,  of  the  origin  of  all  the  various  races  of  man- 
kind. 

Herein  are  detailed  the  circumstances  under  which,  the 
power  of  the  Creator  was  directly  introduced,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  so  modifying  the  constitution  and  the  physical 
frame  of  the  different  branches  of  Noah's  family  assem- 
bled at  Babel  on  the  plains  of  Shinar,  as  that,  though  still 
human,  and  each  exhibiting  all  the  attributes  of  a  common 
humanity,  yet  each  separate  branch  of  this  human  family 
should  become  distinctly  marked,  and  adapted  to  the  re- 
gion it  should  afterwards  occupy ;  the  negro  branch 
especially,  as  fitted  for  burning,  tropical  regions. 

The  constitutional  law  of  change  might  be  then  at  once, 
and  finally  impressed  upon  the  different  branches  of  man, 
simultaneously  with  the  ^^confounding  of  the  language  of  all 
the  earthy     (Gen.  xi.  9.) 

The  operation  of  that  new  law  might  have  been  sudden 
and  instantaneous :  although  it  is  not  improbable  that 
the  operation  would  be  gradual,  developing  itself  through 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  447 

several  successive  generations,  and  developing  itself  the 
more  fully  the  nearer  each  of  these  several  divisions  of 
the  human  family  drew  to  the  region  of  the  earth,  towards 
which  an  appropriate  instinct  tended,  and  for  a  residence 
in  which,  the  advancing  change  was  adapting  the  con- 
stitution.* 

But,  the  change  once  wrought,  remained  permanent. 
The  new  varieties  reverted  not  back  to  their  original  type, 
whatever  that  type  may  have  been.  Such,  we  know,  is 
still  the  law  impressed  upon  animal  nature,  in  the  inferior 
creation.  New  varieties  may  be  formed,  and  have  not  un- 
frequently  been  formed,  especially  in  the  dog,  the  horse, 
sheep,  hog,  &c.  (See  Pritchard's  Kesearches,  vol.  i.  pp. 
849-353,)  but,  when  once  formed,  the  variety  remains, 
and  does  not  revert  back  to  the  original  form.  (See 
Dr.  Bachman,  Unity  of  the  Human  Kace,  pp.  179,  191. 
Pickering  on  the  Paces,  p.  305.) 

If  to  effect  a  separation  of  the  one  race  of  mankind  into 
distinct  bands  or  tribes,  and  their  gradual  dispersion  over 
the  earth,  were  the  object  aimed  at  in  '•''confounding  the 
language  of  all  the  earthj''  as  Moses  distinctly  asserts  it  was, 
that  object,  it  is  plain,  on  the  principles  conceded  by 
naturalists  themselves,  could  not,  with  absolute  certainty, 
be  accomplished,  without  the  superaddition  of  a  constitu- 
tional law,  or  peculiarity,  the  operation  of  which  should, 
sooner  or  later,  produce  such  diversity  in  complexion, 
features,  osteal  configuration,  and  cuticular  secretions,  as 

*  Many  historical  facts,  showing  the  early  population  of  most  of  the 
inhabited  countries  of  the  world,  favor  the  supposition  of  the  immediate 
migration  to  their  "  appropriate  zoological  provinces,''^  of  the  new  races 
resulting  from  divine  interposition  at  Babel.  (See,  in  this  Lecture,  the 
article  ''Early  Civilization.^^ 


448  MAN   ONE  FAMILY. 

are  found  now  prevailing,  and  are  indispensable  to  the 
permanent  residence  and  well-being  of  men  in  the  cli- 
mates and  the  regions  occupied  by  the  several  races. 
This  view  is  based  upon  the  plain  teachings  of  Moses  in 
Genesis.  It  is  more  rational,  and  more  philosophical, 
than  the  theory  of  the  distinct  origin  of  many  groups  of 
men  of  different  races  in  several  localities :  even  if  such 
multiplied  creations  of  men  do  not  amount  to  the  separate 
creation  of  several  distinct  stocks  of  the  same  species  of 
beings,  at  different  and  distinct  centres :  in  contradiction 
of  the  law  laid  down  by  naturalists.  Thus  Dr.  Bachman 
says,  (see  chapter  xiii.  and  pp.  248,  256,)  "  The  creator 
never  called  into  existence  the  same  species  in  two  or  more  h- 
calitiesy     (See  Pickering  on  the  Races,  pp.  302,  303.) 

To  avoid  this  inconsistency,  it  is  maintained,  that  the 
different  races  of  men  are  distinct  species,  not  mere 
varieties  of  the  same  species.  This  point  will  be  con- 
sidered hereafter. 

Nor  is  this  view  of  the  origin  of  the  races  liable  to  the 
objection  urged  by  Agassiz  when  he  says,  p.  138,  "  To 
suppose  that  all  men  originated  from  Adam  and  Eve  is 
to  assume  that  the  order  of  creation  has  been  changed  in 
the  course  of  historical  times  F^  For  this  change  was  effect- 
ed in  the  order  of  nature  long  anteiior  to  historical  times^ 
as  truly  as  the  deluge,  the  occurrence  of  which  no  one 
denies,  was  anterior  to  historical  times.  It  was  therefore 
anterior,  also,  to  the  very  oldest  Egyptian  monuments 
and  records,  and  to  the  most  ancient  of  the  Chinese 
annals,  and  of  the  Indian  histories,  that  are  entitled  to 
any,  the  least  degree  of  credit. 

This  preternatural  occurrence,  (the  account  of  which 
is  given  by  Moses,  the  earliest  of  all  credible  and  authen- 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  449 

ticated  historians,  and  a  prophet  inspired  of  God,)  took 
place  at  a  period  early  enough  to  account  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  different  races — Negro,  Mongol,  and 
Caucasian — as  distinct  as  now,  on  the  earliest  of  the 
Egyptian  monuments. 

On  the  view  of  this  subject  here  presented,  everything 
is  complete  and  consistent.  Mankind  are  all  one  family, 
all  descended  from  the  one  family  saved  with  Noah  in 
the  ark ;  and  the  appearance  of  the  present  diversity 
of  race  and  of  language,  is  explained  by  the  miraculous 
intervention  of  God  at  Babel,  which  is  distinctly  revealed. 
All  existing  difficulties  attending  this  subject  are  here 
obviated,  without  resort  to  any  one  miracle  more  than 
is  asserted  in  Holy  Writ.  It  is  only  admitting  that  when 
the  Bible  says  God  interfered  miraculously  in  the  affairs 
of  men,  in  order  to  effect  a  certain  object,  he  did  all  that 
was  necessary  to  secure  that  object.  If  the  diversity  of 
races,  as  well  as  difference  of  language,  was  necessary  to 
secure  that  object,  then  the  diversity  of  race  as  well  as 
of  language,  was  provided  for  and  secured,  in  that  very 
coming  down  of  God  at  Babel  mentioned  in  Genesis  xi. 
We  are  not  obliged,  in  receiving  this  view  of  the  origin  of 
races  and  of  languages  among  men,  to  decide  how  many 
races  precisely^  were  then  originated.  Whatever  was  neces- 
sary to  the  dispersion  of  man  abroad  over  the  whole  earth, 
was  then  effected.  To  this  day,  on  the  number  of  the 
human  races  the  most  eminent  naturalists  are  not  agreed. 

Make  out,  then,  if  you  choose,  three  with  Cuvier ;  or 

with  Blumenbach  and  with  Morton,  five ;  or  eleven  with 

Pickering ;  or  sixteen  with  Malte  Brun  ;  or  any  larger 

number,  say  one  hundred"^  different  races  in  as  many 

*  See  Two  Lectures,  p.  33. 


460  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

zoological  provinces.  We  can  receive  them  all,  and 
turn  to  this  passage  in  Genesis,  as  accounting  fully  for 
their  occurrence  among  the  numerous  branches  of  the 
human  family  descended  from  the  same  pair  created  in 
Eden,  and  again  descended  all  from  Noah.*     In  entire 

♦  This  solution  of  the  phenomenon  of  so  many  varieties  among  the 
descendants  of  the  one  Noachian  family,  founded  on  the  11th  chapter 
of  Genesis,  the  author  first  stated  in  a  lecture  on  this  subject  delivered 
in  Mobile,  in  January,  1844. 

In  his  Two  Lectures,  published  in  Mobile  that  same  year.  Dr.  Nott 
thus  notices  the  suggestion,  p.  28,  note  :  •'  It  has  been  sujrposed  that  the 
varieties  of  the  human  race  were  produced  at  the  tower  of  Babel  when 
the  confusion  of  tongues  occurred :  but  so  remarkable  an  occurrence 
would  have  been  mentioned.  We  might  just  as  well  suppose  that  some 
were  changed  into  monkeys,  while  others  were  changed  into  negroes.  In 
urging  a  question  of  this  kind,  we  want/ac/5."  This  is  hardly  courteous. 
Injustice  to  Dr.  N.,  however,  it  may  be  remarked,  he  had  probably  only 
heard  from  others  that  such  ground  had  been  taken  by  his  friendly  op- 
ponent The  argument  by  which  the  author's  view  of  the  passage  in 
(Genesis  is  supported,  was  not  published  until  July,  1860,  when  It  was 
g:iven  in  No«.  6  and  6  of  a  series  of  Essays  entitled,  •'  Tkmights  on  Man 
and  the  Bible"  published  in  the  Southern  Presbyterian.  To  the  sugges- 
tion i\iaX  facts  are  wanted  in  relation  to  such  a  subject,  loc  reply,  On  this 
subject /ac/5  cannot  be  Kad.  Facts  in  this  case  are  anterior  to  all  observa- 
tion. The  doctrine  of  diversity  of  origin  for  the  races  of  man  is  a  mere 
theory — a  mere  supposition  based  on  assumption,  as  has  been  already 
shown.  The  doctrine  that  such  diversity  was  occasioned  by  the  direct 
intervention  of  Ood  at  Babel,  rests  on  a  distipct  statement  in  revelation, 
from  which  this  doctrine  seems  necessarily  to  flow. 

The  doctrine  here  advanced,  is  also  nearly  resembling  the  position  as- 
sumed by  Dr.  Bach  man  of  Charleston,  8.  C. ;  only  Dr.  B.  supposes  that 
from  the  beginning  the  Creator  implanted  in  the  organization  of  men  an 
adaptation  to  produce  such  modifications  as  are  essential  to  the  health,  com- 
fort,  aiul  fxdure  increase  of  man's  posterity,  in  the  regions  he  is  to  inhabit. 
(See  p.  179.)    Hence  the  production  of  new  varieties  in  man. 

From  the  strictures  of  Dr.  Bachman  (see  his  chap.  xvi.  p.  241,  &c.,) 
on  the  work  of  Mr.  W.  F.  Van  Amringe,  (New  York,  1848,)  on  the 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 


ttl 


consistency  with  this  view  of  the  essential  unity  of  man- 
kind, is  the  whole  current  of  revelation. 

Having  accounted,  as  above  shown,  for  the  diversity 
of  languages  and  of  races  among  men,  Moses  briefly 
states  the  several  subdivisions  of  the  human  family  as 
migrating  in  different  directions,  to  people  the  whole 
earth.  Very  speedily  thereafter  the  sacred  history  con- 
fines itself  to  the  chosen  race,  who  were  to  be  the  deposi- 
tary of  true  religion,  the  recipients  and  the  guardians  of 
the  sacred  oracles,  and  from  among  whom  the  Messias, 
the  Redeemer  of  mankind,  was  to  spring.  Prophet  after 
prophet  appeared  among  the  chosen  race,  proclaiming  the 
future  advent  of  this  illustrious  personage,  and  announ- 
cing that,  eventually,  all  tribes  and  all  nations  of  men, 
should  submit  to  his  sway.  Throughout  the  prophetic 
books,  though  rarely  is  mention  expressly  made  of  dis- 
similar races,  (unless  it  be  in  the  use  of  the  terms  Ethio- 
pian,  i.  e.  persons  of  changeless  dark  hue,  and  "  the  isles 
of  the  sea,"  "the  Gentiles,"  and  "the  heathen,")  yet  all 
are  spoken  of  as  men,  as  responsible  to  God,  and  as 
awaiting  the  advent  of  a  Saviour. 

In  the  N'ew  Testament  a  like  recognition  of  the  com- 
mon humanity,  and  the  essential  identity  of  all  tribes  of 
men,  is  found.     Jesus  is  designated  "  the  Saviour  of  the 

"  Natural  History  of  Man,"  it  would  seem  that  that  writer  has  pro- 
mulgated a  view  somewhat  similar  to  that  here  presented.  The 
change  of  race,  Mr.  Van  A,  maintains,  was  effected  miraculously  among 
the  sons  of  Noah.  The  error  of  Mr.  Van  A.  would  seem  to  lie  in  at- 
tempting to  fix  the  precise  number  of  varieties  so  produced.  He  spe- 
cifies four  such  varieties.  Hence  the  objections  urged  against  his  views 
by  Dr.  Bachman. 

These  objections  do  not  apply  to  the  view  presented  in  this  work. 

The  book  of  Mr.  Van  Amringe,  the  author  has  not  yet  seen. 


452  MAN   ONE   FAMILY. 

world."  He  is  called  "  the  second  Adam."  "  As  in  Adam 
all  die,  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive."  (1  Cor.  xv. 
21,  22.)  "  In  Christ  Jesus  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek. 
barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  norfree.^*  (Col.  iii.  11.)  All  are 
one  in  Christ.  (See  Rom.  6th  chapter,  1  Cor.  xv.) 
**  There  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  give  among  meii 
whereby  we  must  be  saved,  but  the  name  of  Jesus."  (Acts 
iv.  12.) 

All  this  is  perfectly  plain,  and  in  entire  unison  with 
the  common  origin  of  all  the  races  of  men  ;  utterly  in- 
consistent with  the  doctrine  of  diversity  of  origin.  All 
men  are  depraved :  because,  descending  from  Adam  a 
fallen  being,  they  inherit  his  corrupt  nature ;  and  thus, 
being  guilty,  and  therefore  condemned,  all  men  need  a 
Saviour. 

"  Bi/  one  man's  disobedience,  the  many  were  made  sinners^ 
(Rom.  V.  19.)  ^^  By  one  man  sin  entered  into  Uie  world  and 
death  by  sin,  and  so  deatJi  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all 
have  sinnedy  (Rom.  v.  12.)  Clearly,  then,  Adam  acted 
as  a  public  person,  the  head  and  representative  of  all  his 
posterity,  and  of  none  others.  If  the  whole  population 
of  the  globe  sprang  from  Adam,  then  all  are  affected  by 
hb  fall. 

But  Jesus  is  the  second  Adam  :  for  those  endangered 
by  the  results  of  the  first  Adam's  fall,  Christ  undertook, 
and  for  none  else.  This,  the  whole  plan  of  salvation  pre- 
sented in  the  gospel,  and  this  the  whole  reasoning  of  the 
Apostle  Paul,  imply  and  prove.  If  all  men,  without  ex- 
ception, sprang  from  Adam,  then  for  all,  without  excep- 
tion, salvation  is  provided  in  Christ:  and  such  is  the 
view,  presented  in  the  gospel,  and  authorized  by  Christ 
himself,   when  he  commanded,    "  Go  ye  into  all  the 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  453 

world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,"  Mark 
xvi.  15. 

But  if  the  Bible  history  has  respect  to  one  race  only, 
then  Christ  lived,  and  suffered,  and  died  for  that  one  race 
only.  But  what  race  was  that  ?  Who  can  be  certain, 
of  which  race  Adam  was  the  head?  Moreover,  if,  as 
we  are  told,  "it  may  be  doubted,  whether  there  bei 
now  a  pure  race  on  the  earth,"  (see  Dr.  Nott,  1844,  p.  28,) 
then  no  man  living  can  tell  that  he  himself  is  en- 
titled  to   look  for   the   benefits   of  salvation*  through 

*  It  is  strange  that  the  learned  and  pious  Dr.  J.  Pye  Smith,  lately 
deceased,  should  have  overlooked  the  bearings  of  this  theory  of  diversity 
of  races.  He  had  already  abandoned  the  doctrine,  that  the  Noachian 
deluge  was  universal,  and  he  seems  to  have  held  the  unity  of  the  races, 
by  a  very  feeble  tenure.  He  says  in  his  Supplementary  Notes,  p.  289 : 
"  If  the  two  first  inhabitants  of  Eden  were  the  progenitors,  not  of  all 
human  beings,  but  only  of  the  race  whence  sprung  the  Hebrew  family, 
still  it  would  remain  the  fact,  that  all  were  formed,  by  the  immediate 
power  of  God,  and  all  their  circumstances  would  remain  the  same  as  to 
moral  and  practical  purposes.  Adam  would  be  a  figure  of  Him  that  was 
to  come,  the  Saviour  of  mankind,  just  as  Melchizedek,  or  Moses,  or 
Aaron,  or  David  ;  the  spiritual  lesson  would  be  the  same  ;  the  same  ne- 
cessity would  exist  for  a  saviour,  a  redemption,  and  a  renovation  of  the 
internal  character  by  efficacious  grace. 

"  That  the  Saviour  was,  in  his  human  nature,  a  descendant  of  Adam, 
would  not  militate  against  his  being  a  proper  redeemer  for  all  the  races 
of  mankind,  any  more  than  his  being  a  descendant  of  Abraham,  Israel, 
and  David,  at  all  diminishes  his  perfection  to  save  us,  sinners  of  the  gen- 
tiles."    (Scripture  and  Geology,  Sup.  Notes,  p.  289.) 

How  Dr.  Smith  would  have  been  able  to  reconcile  this  with  the  teach- 
ings of  Paul,  especially  Acts  xvii.  26,  and  Romans  chap,  v.,  1  Tim.  ii. 
11-15,  and  with  sundry  other  places  of  holy  writ,  it  is  not  easy  to  imagine. 
For  the  time  Dr.  S.  lost  sight  of  the  federal  headship  of  both  Christ  and 
Adam.  It  is  dangerous  to  yield  a  single  item  of  the  plain  teachings  of 
the  Bible.  Dr.  Smith  had  abandoned  the  universality  of  the  deluge. 
Dr.  Nott  charges  Dr.  Bachman  with  virtually  doing  the  same,  in  his  ad- 
mission of  different  centres  of  creation  in  his  seventeenth  chapter.    Dr.  N. 


4M  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

Christ  Jesus;  and  certain  it  is,  that  in  that  case,  the 
whole  negro  race  at  least,  are  cut  off  from  all  the  hopes 
of  the  gospel ;  and  the  Mongolian,  and  the  Malay  races 
equally  so. 

In  that  case,  the  entire  missionary  enterprise  is  a  wild 
scheme,  a  lawless  undertaking,  utterly  hopeless  of  success. 
(See  Dr.  Nott's  Two  Lectures,  1849,  p.  17.) 

So  wide-sweeping  are  the  consequences,  which  flow 
from  the  novel  theory  of  a  diversity  of  origin  for  the 
several  races  of  man.  It  is  a  mere  theory,  resting  on  a 
bold  assumption ;  it  contradicts  the  explicit  averments 
of  holy  writ ;  it  runs  counter  to  the  whole  Bible  doctrine ; 
and  it  completely  nullifies  the  whole  gospel  of  salvation 
by  the  Redeemer.  Notwithstanding  all  the  vehement 
^protestations  of  deference  for  the  Bible,  made  by  the  ad- 
Tocates  of  this  diversity  of  races,  the  scheme  is  directly 
contradictory  of  the  Bible. 

Let  any  candid,  unbiassed  reader  decide  whether  such 
language  as  the  Bible  employs,  in  speaking  of  the  crea- 
tion of  one  pair,  to  people  the  earth,  "  Ood  blessed  them. 

says,  "  Dr.  Bachman  dodges  the  plain  teachings  of  the  Bible  in  chronol- 
ogy, but  denies  boldly  that  the  deluge  was  universal,  that  there  was  but 
one  centre  of  creation,  and  that  all  the  animals,  &/C.  came  from  the  ark, 
and  asserts  that  his  opinions  have  been  prevalent  among  learned  divines 
for  the  last  half-century.  On  the  other  side  we  have  just  been  severely 
handled  by  Dr.  Hamilton  of  Mobile,  for  holding  opposite  opinions.  Dr. 
H.  too,  is  right ;  for  the  plain  teaching  of  Genesis  is  opposed  to  Dr.  Bach- 
man, and  we  deny  its  historical  accuracy.  If  the  flood  was  not  universal, 
and  if  the  animals  did  not  come  from  the  ark,  then  plain  language  has 
no  meaning."  (Dr.  J.  C.  Nott,  on  Diversity  of  the  Human  Race,  in  Re- 
view of  Dr.  Bachman  on  the  Unity,  p  19,  note.) 

We  may  also  affirm,  that,  "2/  the  doctrine  that  all  the  hwrnan  races  are 
sprung  from  the  o?ie  human  pair  created  in  Eden,  be  not  taught  in  the  Bi- 
ble" then  plain  language  has  no  meaning. 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  455 

and  said,  Be  ye  fruitful  and  multiply  and  replenish  the  earthj''^ 
(Gen.  i.  28 ;)  again,  representing  one  family  alone  saved 
from  the  deluge,  on  purpose  to  people  the  whole  earth ; 
the  descendants  of  this  family  visited  miraculously  to  pro- 
duce different  languages,  and  to  ensure  the  dispersion  of 
men  abroad  over  the  face  of  all  the  earth ;  and  then, 
afterwards.  Prophets  and  Apostles  speaking  of  all  nations 
as  men,  as  brethren,  as  subject  to  one  law,  as  lying  under 
a  common  condemnation,  and  as  having  one  common 
Saviour  provided  for  all,  does  not  necessarily  involve  the 
idea,  that  all  the  varieties  of  men,  however  differing  now, 
whether  Negroes,  Monguls,  Indians  or  white  men,  are 
descended  from  one  pair,  Adam  and  Eve ;  even  though 
the  peculiar  distinctions  by  which  these  races  are  severally 
characterized,  are  not  expressly  noticed,  and  though  no 
designation  of  the  several  races,  equivalent  to  the  modern 
names,  Indian,  Malay,  &c.,  is  employed. 

The  evidences  of  a  common  humanity  in  all  the  several 
races  of  man,  notwithstanding  their  peculiarities,  are  so 
numerous  and  so  unequivocal,  that  probably  the  idea  of 
a  separate  origin  never  occurred  to  any  of  the  sacred 
writers.  To  those  who  receive  as  true  the  books  of 
Moses,  (^.  e.  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation,  the  deluge, 
the  confusion  of  tongues  at  Babel,  and  the  subsequent  dis- 
persion of  the  descendants  of  Noah  over  the  face  of  all 
the  earth,)  such  assertions,  that  the  dark  races  and  the  fair, 
are  all  descended  from  the  same  stock,  was  needless.  The 
whole  narrative  implies  it,  and  is  utterly  inconsistent 
with  any  other  theory  as  to  the  origin  of  mankind. 

The  sacred  writers  were  intent  upon  conveying  truths 
of  deep  import  to  the  higher  nature  of  man,  as  a  moral 
agent,  as  fallen  and  degraded,  but  yet  capable  of  recovery. 


456  MAN   ONE    FAMILY. 

Tn  these  interests  man,  as  man^  is  concerned.  Before 
these  high  interests,  the  differences  of  complexion,  of 
features,  of  figure,  and  of  conformation,  of  language  and 
of  habits,  sink  into  insignificance.  As  such  the  sacred 
writers  seem  to  have  uniformly  regarded  the  case,  dwel- 
ling on  these  high  interests,  and  noting  not  at  all,  or  in- 
cidentally only,  this  difference  of  race.  In  one  place 
alone,  and  that  the  very  one  where  we  might,  not  un- 
naturally, look  for  it,  is  there  a  statement  made,  which 
seems,  the  more  closely  it  is  contemplated,  the  more 
plainly  to  cover  this  whole  ground,  and  to  attribute  this 
diversity  now  found  among  men  in  different  climates,  to 
a  direct  intervention  of  the  Almighty,  subsequent  to  the 
flood,  and  not  many  ages  after  that  event ;  when,  at  Ba- 
bel, God  is  declared  to  have  effected  some  great  change 
in  rnari^  of  such  nature,  as  to  produce  a  diversity  of  lan- 
guages and  to  ensure  the  dispersion  of  men  over  the 
whole  earth,  and  their  permanent  settlement  in  different 
lands,  and  in  different  climates ;  or,  as  the  naturalists  ex- 
press it,  in  different  "zoological  provinces." 

This  result  we  know  has  been  effected  :  and  such,  the 
Bible  tells  us,  was  the  manner  and  such  the  occasion, 
when  it  was  effected.  We  can  thus  account  for  all  the 
phenomena  presented  in  the  varying  races  of  mankind, 
without  supposing  any  one  miracle  beyond  what  the  Bible 
unequivocally  affirms,  and  without  doing  violence  to  a  single 
passage^  or  to  so  much  as  one  solitary  word  of  Holy  Writ. 

An  additional  and  a  very  strong  proof  is  thus  elicited, 
of  the  divine  origin  of  the  books  of  Moses ;  inasmuch 
as,  the  more  light  the  researches  of  science  pour  upon  us, 
the  plainer  and  the  more  consistent  are  the  teachings  of 
these  books  seen  to  become. 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  457 

If  we  find  ourselves  compelled  to  abandon  some  posi- 
tion, which  we  had  held  as  a  Bible-taught  truth,  we  find 
that  the  error  lay,  not  in  the  Bible,  but  in  our  mode  of 
interpreting  it.  We  look  at  the  Bible  again,  and  we  find 
its  teachings,  now  made  all  the  plainer  to  us,  and  perfectly 
consistent  with  the  results  of  scientific  discovery,  or  of  the 
researches  of  learning.  The  first  impression  derived  from 
reading  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  would  probably  be, 
that  in  the  six  days  of  creation  there  spoken  of,  this  earth 
and  the  entire  material  universe  were  brought  into  exist- 
ence, and  reduced  to  their  present  order.  Yet  Moses 
does  not  say  so.  When,  then,  the  wonders  of  geological 
discovery  were  first  given  to  the  world,  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing, that  the  first  impression  made  thereby  on  the  minds 
of  theologians  was,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  earth's  exist- 
ence and  of  its  having  been  subjected  to  repeated  con- 
vulsions prior  to  man's  creation,  is  contradictory  of  the 
Bible.  A  closer,  calmer  examination  of  the  first  of 
Genesis  shows,  that  the  teachings  of  Moses  are  not  only 
not  inconsistent  with,  but  that  they  are  most  wonderfully 
accordant  to,  these  the  discoveries  of  modern  science. 

So  also,  when  the  diversity  of  races  among  men  began 
to  attract  attention,  and  to  provoke  discussion  as  to  the 
origin  of  these  races,  it  was  but  natural  that  they  who 
hold  the  Bible  to  be  an  inspired  book,  and  who  find 
therein  the  doctrine  broadly  stated,  that  God  created  one 
human  pair  and  one  only,  to  be  the  progenitors  of  all 
men  inhabiting  the  earth,  should  seek  to  account  for  the 
present  diversity  among  men  by  the  influence  of  climate, 
food,  and  other  causes  operating  through  a  long  course 
of  time  upon  different  branches  of  the  human  family,  to 
produce  this  diversity  ;  and  numerous  instances  of  anal- 

20 


458  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

ogous*  changes  among  inferior  animals,  certainly  lend 
strong  confirmation  to  the  hypothesis,  and  show  that  if 
time  enough  can  be  found  prior  to  the  historic  age,  it 
might  possibly  have  been  effected. 

But  now  that  the  result  of  antiquarian  research  among 
oriental  monuments  seems  to  render  it  probable,  nay, 
almost  certain,  that  this  diversity  existed,  as  distinctly 
marked  as  now,  in  the  very  earliest  ages  of  which  we 
have  any  record,  so  that  we  cannot  he  certain,  we  cannot 
establish  it  by  proof,  that  sufficient  time  intervened  be- 
tween the  deluge  and  the  construction  of  those  oldest 
monuments!  on  which  we  find  the  delineations  of  men 

*  See  Bachman,  Unity,  &c.,  part  i.  chap.  iii.  and  iv.  See  Lawrence, 
Lectures  on  Physiology,  p.  303,  &c.     Pritchard,  vol.  iii,  chap.  vii. 

•f  On  this  subject  consult  Dr.  Morton  (Cran.  Egyptiacae,  pp.  60,  61.)  He 
says :  "  Negroes  are  abundantly  represented  in  the  pictorial  delineations 
of  the  Egyptian  monuments  of  every  epoch  ;  some  of  them  are  nearly 
8,600  years  old,  and,  as  if  to  enforce  the  distinction  of  race,  are  placed 
side  by  side  with  people  of  the  purest  Caucasian  features.  The  delin- 
eations of  negro  feature  supposed  to  be  the  most  ancient,  have  not  yet 
been  identified  with  the  epoch  to  which  they  belong ;"  e.  g.  in  a  tomb  at 
Thebes,  the  age  of  Amontuonefi,  an  ijnplaced  king,  supposed  to  be  before 
the  16th  dynasty,  and  consequently  more  than  b.c.  2000.  (Rosellini, 
Appendix  No.  13.     Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egypt,  vol.  iii.) 

So  also  in  the  procession,  of  the  age  of  Thothmes  IV.  at  Thebes,  ne- 
groes bear  tribute,  about  b.c.  1700. 

At  Thebes,  (in  a  catacomb,)  Amunoph  IIL  receives  homage  from 
"  black  chiefs  of  Cush,  in  Ethiopia."     (Topography  of  Thebes  p.  136.) 

Negroes  are  found  on  the  monuments  of  Horus,  Ramses  II.,  of  the  19th 
dynasty,  and  Ramses  III.,  in  Egypt  and  Nubia,  abundantly.  (See  Cham- 
poUion,  Monumens  de  I'Egypte,  plate  110,  See  also  the  monuments 
found  at  Beit  Oalli,  in  Nubia,  where  Ramses  II.  makes  war  on  negroes. 
See  Champ.  Mon.  tom.  i.  pi.  71,  72:  Rosellini,  Men.  M.  R.  Tar.  75. 
See  also  Morton's  Crania  Egyptiaca,  p.  62 ) 

In  his  Crania  Americana,  p.  88,  Dr.  Morton  thus  reasons  on  the  an- 
tiquity of  the  negro  race  :  "  The  great  antiquity  of  the  negro  race,  ad- 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  459 

exhibiting  this  diversity  of  feature  and  of  complexion,  it 
is  but  what  we  might  expect  to  find  in  a  divinely  inspired 
document,  when  we  discover  that  in  the  brief  record 
given  in  Genesis  respecting  the  earliest  times,  this  very 
difficulty  is  met,  as  has  been  proved  above;  showing 
that  the  difficulty  was  anticipated  and  provided  for  by 
the  unerring  Mind  which  guided  the  pen  of  Moses,  as 

mits  of  no  question,  and  has  even  led  some  philosophers  to  surmise  that 
it  was  the  primitive  stock  of  mankind."  Dr.  Caldwell  says,  (Thoughts 
on  Unity  of  the  Human  Species,  Philadelphia,  1830,  p.  72,)  "  Accord- 
ing to  accredited  dates,  it  is  about  4,179  years  (in  1852,  4  201  years) 
since  Noah  left  the  ark.  He  and  his  family  are  believed  to  have  been 
of  the  Caucasian  race.  We  shall  assume  this  as  a  truth.  But  3,445 years 
ago  (now  3,467)  a  nation  of  Ethiopians  is  known  to  have  existed.  They 
were  dark-skinned,  very  different  from  the  Caucasian,  and  they  settled 
near  Egypt.  Supposing  that  people  to  have  been  of  the  stock  of  Noah, 
the  change  must  have  been  completed  and  a  new  race  formed,  in  733 
years,  and  probably  in  a  much  shorter  period. 

"  The  recent  discoveries  in  Egypt  give  additional  force  to  the  preceding 
statement,  showing  that  the  Caucasian  and  negro  races  were  as  perfectly 
distinct  in  Egypt  upwards  of  4,000  years  ago  as  they  are  now.  If,  then, 
the  Caucasian  race  was  derived  from  the  negro,  or  the  negro  from  the 
Caucasian,  by  the  action  of  external  and  natural  causes,  the  change 
must  have  been  effected  in,  at  most,  a  thousand  years :  a  theory  which 
the  subsequent  experience  of  thirty  centuries  proves  to  be  a  physical  im- 
possibility :  and  we  have  already  ventured  to  insist,  that  such  a  commu- 
tation could  be  effected  by  nothing  short  of  a  miracle,"  (p.  88.) 

In  this  conclusion  of  Dr.  Morton,  we  fully  concur.  The  change  into 
different  races  from  one,  could  be  effected  by  nothing  short  of  a  miracle  : 
and  by  a  miracle  it  was  done,  as  we  have  shown. 

These  considerations  are  strengthened  by  the  facts  stated  in  the  Eth- 
nological Journal,  that  in  the  tombs  at  Sakkara,  so  early  as  the  6th  dy- 
nasty, more  than  b.c.  3,000  years,  the  hieroglyphic  name  K  u  S  H,  the 
name  for  the  negro,  is  found  by  Lepsius.  (See  Ethnological  Journal,  No. 
viii.  p.  310.) 

The  author  of  this  work  has  looked  over  the  plates  of  the  tombs  in 
Lepsius'  Denkmiihler,  but  has  not  yet  detected  this  name. 


460  MAN   ONE   FAMILY. 

the  amanuensis  of  Heaven,  in  recording  the  events  at- 
tending the  production  of  the  universe,  the  origin  of  man, 
and  the  infancy  of  society,  by  pointing  out  the  very  oc- 
casion and  time  of  introducing  a  diversity  of  language 
among  men,  and  of  impressing  on  the  human  constitu- 
tion that  law,  the  operation  of  which  was  indispensable 
to  effect  that  diversity  in  the  appearance  and  physical 
structure  of  different  branches  of  the  one  human  family, 
without  which  the  dispersion  of  mankind,  as  they  are 
now  found,  over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  would  have 
been  impracticable. 

This  view  discovers  to  us  a  perfect  consistency  between 
the  Bible  statements  and  all  the  known  facts  of  science ; 
and  it  is  in  harmony  with  the  entire  system  of  truths 
and  of  doctrines  pervading  the  whole  Bible. 

Man,  wherever  found,  is  one  family ;  all  men  are 
sprung  from  one  common  original  stock,  notwithstanding 
the  great  variety  of  races  now  found  among  them.  Such 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible.  Are  we  here  told  that  the 
several  races  of  men  are  so  widely  separated  by  distinc- 
tive marks,  which  are  invariably  propagated  by  heredi- 
tary descent,  and  have  been  so  propagated  from  the  ear- 
liest times,  as  the  monuments  of  Egypt,  and  the  writings 
of  the  ancient  classics  show ;  that  these  races  must  he  regard- 
ed as  distinct  species,  and  not  mere  varieties — just  as  the  lion, 
the  panther,  and  the  tiger,  are  so  many  distinct  species 
of  the  great  cat  family ;  each  species  perfectly  distinct, 
and  invariably  propagating  its  like  ;  and  that  it  is  an  ax- 
iom in  natural  history,  that  each  species  was  in  its  o7'igin 
distinct  and  separate,  as  now  we  see  it  ?  That  conse- 
quently it  would  be  contrary  to  the  established  laws  of 
nature,  had  the  several  human  species  which  are  now 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  461 

perfectly  distinct,  all  sprung  from  one  common  stock,  and 
not  had  each  its  separate  and  distinct  origin  ? 

We  answer,  the  objection  thus  urged,  is  plausible,  but 
not  sound.  Man  is  an  anomaly  in  the' animal  kingdom. 
His  counterpart  cannot  be  found  in  the  whole  range  of 
scientific  investigation ;  and  an  anomalous  case  cannot  he 
properly  subjected  to  the  tests  and  the  reasonings  of  other  and 
ordinary  cases.^ 

If  the  several  races  of  men  are  distinguished  by  pecu- 
liarities in  each,  as  numerous,  as  great,  and  as  strictly 
hereditary,  as  those  which  separate  the  several  distinct 
species  in  the  animal  kingdom,  these  races  have  also 
other,  higher,  more  important,  and  more  numerous  points 
of  resemblance^  than  are  found  among  the  several  species 
of  any  kind  of  animals  ;  resemblances,  that  constitute  a 
bond  of  union,  a  proof  of  identity  of  nature^  such  as  no 
class  of  animals  can  show ;  resemblances,  or  rather  an 
identity  of  nature,  for  which  nothing  can  satisfactorily 
account,  but,  "  their  genital  connection  by  natural  descent^ ^ 
from  a  common  origin.     (Agassiz,  p.  135.) 

*  That  man  is  an  anomaly  among  the  animated  tribes  of  earth, 
naturalists  themselves  do  feel ;  and  this  the  deniers  of  the  original  unity 
of  the  human  races  do  feel  and  virtually  admit,  when  in  reply  to  the  argu- 
ment for  such  unity  derived  from  the  production,  now  and  then,  of  new 
varieties  among  the  several  species  of  inferior  animals,  they  deny  the 
analogy,  and  contend  that  the  production  of  new  varieties  among  the 
lower  animals,  does  not  prove  that  similar  permanent  and  hereditary 
varieties  have  been  produced  by  climate,  diet,  the  lapse  of  time,  &c. 
among  men.  And  in  this  they  are  right.  The  analogy  is  not  complete ; 
man  is  rot  a  mere  animals :  man  is  an  anomaly  in  the  animal  kingdom. 

"  Now  all  these  changes,  (says  Dr.  Nott,)  we  freely  admit,  but  does 
this  prove  that  physical  causes  have  the  same  power  to  change  man  1" 
(Two  Lectures,  1844,  p.  2L) 

This  question  implies  the  admission,  "  Man  is  an  anomaly." 


462  MAN   ONE  FAMILY. 

The  powers  of  thought,  of  reasoning,  of  forecast,  the 
faculty  of  speech,  the  whole  class  of  moral  emotions, 
together  with  the  capacity  for  progressive  improvement, 
distinguish  human  nature  everywhere,  "  eminently  de- 
veloped in  civilized  society,  but  which  equally  eodst  in  the 
natural  disposition  of  all  human  races.  These  capacities 
constitute  a  higher  union  among  vneftx^^  (Agassiz,  p.  120,) 
and  they  defy  all  attempt  to  classify  men,  as  the  mere 
brute  animals  may  be  classed. 

Besides,  it  has  hitherto  been  generally  admitted,  that 
one  mark  of  distinct  species,  is  found  in  a  strong  repug- 
nance to  sexual  connection  between  distinct  species^  and  in  the 
utter  sterility  of  hybrids.  Rarely,  indeed,  are  hybrids  found 
among  animals,  roaming  at  large.  Among  domesticated 
animals,  hybrids  are  sometimes  produced  by  artificial 
means ;  e.  g.  muleSj  the  offspring  of  the  horse  and  the  ass. 
Now  it  is  found,  as  a  general  rule,  that  such  hybrids  are 
sterile;  they  do  not,  and  they  cannot  propagate  the  hy- 
brid race,  generally  speaking. 

Now  it  is  undeniable,  that  in  this  respect,  there  is, 
at  least,  a  wide  difference  between  the  several  human 
races,  and  the  species  of  irrational  animals.  In  every 
part  of  the  world,  throughout  the  whole  southern  coun- 
try of  these  United  States,  in  every  European  colony  and 
settlement  among  the  dark  races  over  the  face  of  the 
earth,  mixed  breeds,  persons,  and  families  of  mingled 
blood  are  found,  and  they  are  not  observed  to  be  per- 
ceptibly less  fertile  in  their  union  with  persons  of 
mingled  blood,  or  with  persons  of  either  of  the  original 
races,  than  are  others.  Nay,  some  writers  declare  that 
such  mixed  breeds  are  peculiarly  fertile  in  their  union. 
Assuredly  infertility  of  hybrids,  which   is   undeniably 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  463 

found  applying  to  the  species  among  brute  animals,  can- 
not be  predicated  of  the  offspring  of  parents  of  different 
races  in  the  human  family,  whatever  may  be  found  to 
be  the  case  in  particular  instances  in  Mobile,  or  in  New- 
Orleans  ;  and  whatever  confidence  may  be  attached  to 
the  contrary  opinion  held  by  very  respectable  medical 
men,  based  on  the  fact,  that  occasionally,  Creole  families 
in  New  Orleans  die  out,  and  leave  no  heir  to  their  prop- 
erty.    (See  Dr.  Nott's  Two  Lectures,  pp.  45-47.) 

No  sober-minded,  unbiassed  inquirer,  who  has  no  the- 
ory to  maintain,  can  avoid  discerning  the  failure,  in  this 
instance  at  least,  of  all  attempts  to  prove,  that  the  races 
of  men  are  distinct  species.*  If  this  were  true  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word  species,  as  used  in  natural  his- 
tory, there  would  be  no  ground  for  the  remark  made  by 
Dr.  Nott,  and  often  repeated  by  others,  that,  ^''prohahly  a 
pure  race  ofr)%en  cannot  now  he  found  on  earths  (See  Two 
Lectures,  1844,  p.  28;  also  Keview  of  Dr.  Bachman, 
pp.  10-15.) 

The  fertility  or  infertility  of  hybrids,  may  not  consti- 
tute an  infallible  test  of  species;  but  it  is,  generally 
speaking,  a  characteristic  mark ;  and  no  one  can  fail 
to  notice  a  great  difference  in  this  respect,  between  the 
several  races  of  man,  and  the  several  species  of  any  one 
class  of  animals.  Nowhere  are  found  the  lion,  the  tiger, 
the  panther,  &c.  mixing  freely,  and  their  hybrid  off- 
spring amalgamating  the  several  species  by  impercep- 

*  On  this  point  the  accomplished  anatomist,  Johannes  Muller,  thus 
expresses  himself:  "  The  different  races  of  mankind  are  forms  of  one  sole 
species,  by  the  union  of  two  of  whose  members  descendants  are  propa- 
gated. They  are  not  different  species  of  a  genus,  since  in  that  case  their 
hybrid  descendants  would  remain  unfruitful."    (Cosmos,  vol.  L  p.  354.) 


464  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

tible  degrees.  But  such  constant  mingling  of  the  human 
races  is  everywhere  palpable;  the  races  melt  the  one 
into  the  other,  and  have  done  so  in  every  age. 

Here  then,  in  one  important  point,  is  a  .difference  be- 
tween man  and  other  animals,  amply  sufficient,  it  may  be 
contended,  when  viewed  in  connection  with  the  higher 
nature  common  to  all  the  varieties  of  men,  to  show  that 
these  varieties  are  not^  properly  speaking,  specific^  and  that 
all  this  diversity  of  type,  propagated  though  it  is  by 
hereditary  descent,  is  but  like  the  characteristics  of  new 
varieties  arising  now  and  then  among  the  inferior  ani- 
mals, and  is  not  at  all  inconsistent  with  identity  of  origin 
and  community  of  descent  from  one  primitive  pair.* 

The  general  repugnance  to  sexual  union  manifested  in 
the  different  species  of  brutes,  shows  the  design  of  the 
Creator,  that  tlie  species  be  preserved  distinct  and  pure :  in 
the  brute  races  this  end  is  attained.  If  the  several  races 
of  men  be  species,  this  design  at  least  has  signally  failed, 
for  we  are  told  that  "  probably  now  not  a  pure  ra>ce  exists 
on  earthy 

♦  On  thia  subject  the  learned  Baron  Humboldt  thus  writes :  "  So  long 
as  attention  was  directed  solely  to  the  extremes  in  varieties  of  color  and 
of  form  and  to  the  vividness  of  the  first  impression  of  the  senses,  the  ob- 
server was  naturally  disposed  to  regard  races  rather  as  originally  different 
species,  than  as  varieties.  In  my  opinion,  however,  more  powerful  reasoiu 
can  be  advanced  in  favor  of  the  unity  of  the  human  races."  (Cosmos, 
vol.  i.  p.  352.) 

The  work  entitled  the  '*  Unity  of  the  Human  Races,"  by  Rev.  Thomas 
Smythe,  D.D.  of  Charleston,  S.  C.  may  be  also  consulted  with  great  advan- 
tage. It  is  a  work  of  great  research,  and  replete  with  valuable  informa- 
tion on  the  various  points  therein  discussed ;  although  in  all  the  con- 
clusions therein  drawn,  the  author  of  these  pages  cannot  concur.  (See 
also  Dr.  Bachraan,  on  "  the  Unity,"  chap.  ii.  iii.  iv.  and  v.  See  also  Dr. 
Nott's  Review  of  Dr.  Bachman,  and  consult  Dr.  Morton's  paper,  on  '•  Hy- 
bridity  as  a  Test  of  Species."    See  Pritchard,  vol.  i.  book  ii.) 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  465 

This  expression  is  perhaps  too  strong :  but  undeniably, 
the  several  races  of  men  have  extensively  intermingled.* 

On  the  views  presented  in  this  work,  it  is  plain  that  no 
great  weight  can  be  attributed  to  the  occasional  appear- 
ance of  new  varieties  among  the  several  races  of  animals ; 
nor  yet  upon  the  changes  which  have  been  observed  to 
result,  in  some  instances,  in  men  as  well  as  in  lower  ani- 
mals, from  climate,  food,  and  peculiar  treatment. 

With  those  who  attribute  the  diversity  of  races  among 
men,  to  these  causes,  operating  through  a  long  course  of 
time,  such  cases  are  all  important :  but  not  on  the  theory 
advocated  in  this  work. 

Many  interesting  facts  illustrative  of  these  points,  are 
presented  in  the  learned  work  of  Dr.  Pritchard,  vol.  i. 
book  ii.  pp.  105-376  ;  by  Dr.  Bachman  on  the  Unity,  &c., 
chap.  ii.  iii.  iv. ;  Dr.  Lawrence,  sec.  ii.  chapters  i.  and  ii.) 
But  all  that  these  facts  can  serve  to  show  is,  that  the 
constitutional  change  effected  by  the  intervention  of  God 
simultaneously  with  the  confounding  of  language  at  Ba- 
bel, and  which  issued  in  the  speedy  appearance  of  vari- 
ous races  among  men,  is  not  an  event  altogether  anom- 
alous. 

On  the  alleged  intellectual  inferiority  of  the  dark 
races,  and  especially  of  the  negro,  too  much  stress  has 
been  laid,  as  an  argument  for  diversity  of  origin.  An 
idiot  is  not  the  less  a  child  of  the  same  parents,  on  account 
of  his  inferiority  to  his  more  highly  gifted  brothers. 

*  Says  Dr.  Nott  of  Mobile,  "  Is  there  any  example  on  the  earth  at  the 
present  day  of  two  races  living  together,  without  mingling  V  (Physical 
History  of  Man,  1849,  p.  28.) 

The  Editor  of  the  London  Ethnological  Journal  remarks,  (see  No.  iii. 
p.  129,)  "  The  primitive  races  no  longer  exist,  rigorously  speaking.  All, 
or  nearly  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  are  of  mixed  blood." 

20* 


466  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

Nor  do  the  facts  that  have  been  collected  with  great  in- 
dustry, and  presented  with  much  ingenuity,  by  several 
writers,  in  illustration  of  the  ancient  civilization  of  the 
dark  races,  carry  that  weight  in  this  argument,  which 
those  who  adduce  the  facts,  seem  inclined  to  attribute  to 
them.* 

♦  See  the  carious  and  very  interesting  array  of  historical  facts  on  this 
subject,  presented  by  Dr.  T.  Smythe,  in  "  The  Unity  of  the  Human  Races," 
chapters  iii.  iv.  and  v.,  pp.  46-84.  See  also  Pritchard's  Researches,  vol.  ii. 
p.  846,  &c.    Pickering  on  the  Races,  p.  349. 

Some  very  curious  and  beautifully  sculptured  negro  figures  from  Egypt, 
forcibly  strike  one  in  ranging  through  the  Egyptian  Halls  of  the  Museum 
in  the  Louvre  at  Pi^ris. 

But  the  author  has  searched  in  vain  throughout  the  plates  and  illustrar 
tions  of  the  magnificent  works  of  the  Champollions,  Rosellini,  Birch, 
Wilkinson,  Sharpe,  Vysc  and  Pcrring,  Caillaud,  Nestor  de  I'Hote,  Prisse 
and  Lepsius,  including  the  "  Tombs,  &c.,"  (which  arc  all  in  his  own  library,) 
to  find  the  evidence  of  negro  superiority,  indicated  in  the  remark  of  Dr. 
Smythe  in  his  Unity,  &c.,  "  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  the  most  ancient 
Egyptians  really  did  have  more  or  less  of  the  peculiar  characteristics  of 
the  negro  race,"  (p.  64.) 

Of  this  negro  character  of  tho  old  Egyptians,  the  published  copies  of 
the  Egyptian  pictorial  delineations  show  no  trace ;  none,  at  least,  that  is 
obvious  to  ordinary  inspection.  Negroes  are  often  and  very  distinctly 
depicted  at  Ipsamboul,  at  Beit-Oalli,  at  Thebes,  &c.,  but  generally  as  cap- 
tives. There  is  also,  in  the  portraits  of  tho  Pharaohs,  occasionally,  a  very 
palpable  diflerence  in  the  style  of  features,  and  sometimes  in  the  com- 
plexion, though  this  last  is  not  a  token  that  can  bo  relied  on.  These  an- 
cient paintings  show  different  families  reigning  at  diff*erent  periods,. some- 
times Nubians  in  feature,  sometimes  strictly  Egyptians,  almost  Grecian 
in  feature,  but  never  anything  clearly  approaching  to  the  negro.  (See 
Champollion,  Monumens  de  I'Egypte  et  de  Nubie,  Plates  vol.  i.  Plate 
iii.  which  exhibits  the  portrait  of  Sesostris,  or  Ramses  III.,  that  of  his 
queen  Nofre-Afri,  and  that  of  a  princess  his  daughter. 

Compare  this  plate  with  plate  xi.  representing  the  same  Sesostris,  hold- 
ing a  group  of  captives,  among  whom  are  negroes  and  Asiatics,  and  one 
with  the  features  of  a  Mongul,  a  Chinaman  seemingly.  These  are  de- 
lineated at  Ipsamboul  in  Nubia.    Negroes  are  delineated  side  by  side 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  467 

Whether  negroes  ever  acted  a  distinguished  part,  oi 
not,  in  India  and  in  Egypt,  as  some  conclude  was  the  case, 
from  the  negro-featured  sphynxes,  &c.,  in  Egypt,  or  in 

with  Egyptians,  see  Plates  xv.  xvi.  xvii.  Compare  also  the  magnificent 
Plates  xxxiv,  and  xxxv.  with  Plate  xxxvii.,  where  an  entirely  different 
race  is  depicted ;  but  they  are  not  negroes,  although  their  lips  have  a 
more  than  Jewish  fulness. 

In  Plate  xlix.  are  three  portraits :  that  of  Thouthmosis  IV.  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty,  supposed  by  Wilkinson  and  by  Dr.  Eadie,  (see  Early 
Oriental  History,  p.  85,)  to  be  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus  of  Israel :  that 
of  Thouthmosis  III.  (the  king  Moeris  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty :)  and  also 
that  of  Amenotph,  or  Amenophis  II.,  also  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty. 
These  are  represented  in  a  temple  of  Phre,  or  of  the  Sun,  at  Amada  in 
Nubia.  The  style  of  feature  is  different  from  that  of  Sesostris,  but  is  still 
pure  Caucasian.  The  monarch  represented  by  the  first  of  these  last 
mentioned  portraits,  Thouthmosis  IV.  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  (not  of 
the  eighth,  as  it  is  erroneously  printed  in  my  copy  of  Dr.  Smy  the's  book,) 
is  he  whose  queen,  as  Dr.  Pickering  assures  us,  (see  his  work  on  the  Races 
of  Man,  p.  185,)  "  we  have  evidence  to  believe  was  a  negress." 

She  was  probably  a  Nubian,  or  an  Ethiopian,  of  a  dark  complexion.  No 
instance  of  a  negress,  with  the  indications  of  royalty,  appears  on  the 
monuments.  (See  Champollion,  Monumens,  &c.,  Plate  Ixxiii.  vol.  i.  at 
Beit-Oalli:  and  Plate  Iviii.,  bis.,  representing  a  series  of  portraits  at 
Kalabsche.  See  also  the  portraits  of  queens,  in  Plates  ccxxix.  ccxxx. 
and  ccxxxi.  vol.  iii.  from  the  tombs  of  the  queens  at  Thebes.) 

There  is,  indeed,  the  head  of  Amenouphis  III.  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty, 
taken  from  the  paintings  adorning  the  tomb  of  that  monarch,  at  Thebes, 
which  is  given  in  Plate  ccxxxii.  tom.  iii.  of  Champollion's  Monumens, 
&c.  Of  this  head  Champollion  says,  (see  his  Explication  des  Planches, 
vol  iii.  Plate  ccxxxii.)  "  Le  type  negre  domine  en  cette  figure  :  la  mere 
du  prince  etait  une  Ethiopienne."  The  negro  type  predominates  in  this 
figure ;  the  mother  of  the  prince  was  an  Ethiopian.  The  original  painting 
has  been  transferred  to  the  "  Bibliotheque  Royale"  at  Paris. 

It  must  require  a  lively  fancy  to  make  out  negro  features  in  this  head. 
Plate  cclxvii.  of  Champollion  presents  two  figures  of  Africans,  quite  black, 
and  in  a  becoming  dress.  They  seem  to  have  been  attendants  on  the 
court. 

In  Plates  x.  and  xi.  of  the  '*  Monuments  Egyptiens,"  of  Mon,  E.  Prisse,  are 


468  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

Nubia,  and  from  the  reputed  negro  origin  of  the  queen 
of  one  of  the  Pharaohs  (Thouthmosis  IV.  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty,  see  Pickering,  p.  186,)  cannot  materially  affect 
the  argument. 

All  the  attributes  of  humanity  appertain  to  the  dark 
races,  as  truly  as  to  the  white — to  the  negro,  as  to  the 
Caucasian. 

"  His  follies  and  his  vices  stamp  him  man."— Montqomeby. 

A  great  difference  of  intellect  is  sometimes  noticed 
among  members  of  the  same  family.  Since  the  several 
races  differ  in  features  and  in  complexion,  why  may  they 
not  differ  also  in  intellectual  power  and  capacity,  without 

two  curious  delineations.  Of  these,  the  one,  that  of  Amounoph  III.,  of 
the  eighteenth  djTiasty,  delineated  in  a  temple  at  Karnak,  at  Thebes, 
has  more  than  the  Hebrew  fulness  of  lips  given  in  Amenophis  III.  of 
Champollion.  (Plate  ccxxxii.)  It  has  the  thick  lips,  and  projecting  under 
jaw  of  the  negro.  Yet  it  is  far  from  a  negro  head.  (See  Pritchard,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  235, 236.)  The  oldest  representation  of  negro  features  yet  found  by 
the  writer,  is  in  one  of  the  plates  of  Lepsius's  "  Denkmalcr  aus  Egypten 
dc-c."  attributed  by  Lepsius  to  the  twelfth  dynasty. 

The  bride  of  Solomon,  whose  dark  complexion  may  possibly  be  intima- 
ted in  the  "  Song  of  Solomon,"  chap.  i.  vers.  5,  6,  was  probably  an  Egyp- 
tian princess,  of  a  dark  brunette  complexion,,and  Arab  features.  Yet 
women  are  usually  painted  on  Eg>T)tian  monuments  of  a  much  lighter 
hue  than  the  men.  (But  see  Champollion's  Monumens,  vol.  i.  Plate  iii., 
also  Plates  xi.  and  xx.,  in  the  "  Auswahl,  &c."  of  Lepsius:  Leipzic,1842.) 

Many  of  the  Arab,  the  Egyptian  and  the  Nubian  women,  to  this  day, 
when  quite  young,  are  dark,  (almost  black,  indeed)  but  comely.  (Lane's 
Manners  and  Customs  of  Modern  Eg3T)tians,  vol.  1.  p.  50.) 

Dr.  Pickering  states  that  Egyptians,  and  others  of  the  white  race,  are 
represented  laboring  in  the  fields,  and  never  are  negroes  so  represented. 
This  is  true :  but  it  is  also  tfue  that  negroes  are  represented  as  captives, 
often  as  menials,  and  subordinates  in  public  processions,  but  never  as  per- 
sons of  rank  and  dignity :  unless  it  be,  possibly,  in  Champollion's  Plate 
cclxvii.,  at  Thebes,  Biban-El-Molouk. 


MAN   ONE   FAMILY.  469 

detriment  of  their  claim  to  a  common  origin?  From 
time  immemorial  the  negro  has  been  an  oppressed  race, 
secluded  from  all  elevating  influences.  Eemove  the 
pressure,  and  who  shall  say  of  what,  even  the  negro  in- 
tellect shall  not  prove  capable?  Who  shall  say  that 
there  is  not,  even  now,  in  the  unexplored  heart  of  Africa, 
a  civilization,  and  a  refinement  of  its  secluded  negro 
population,  entitled  to  rival  that  of  the  Mongolian  race, 
the  Malay,  or  even  the  Caucasian  ?*  (See  Pritchard's 
Kescarches,  vol.  ii.  p.  346.) 

Indication  of  strong  sense,  sound  judgment,  and  an 
exquisitely  vivid  imagination,  is  not  unfrequently  ob- 
served among  negroes  of  pure  blood. 

The  writer  of  these  pages,  in  intercourse  with  the  ne- 
groes around  him,  of  whom  a  goodly  number  are  in- 

*  It  has  been  triumphantly  asked,  where  are  the  arts,  the  civilization, 
the  literature  of  the  negroes  1  What  negro  has  ever  written  a  page  worth 
preserving  1  It  is  enough  to  say,  in  reply,  the  circumstances  around  him, 
invariably  affect  the  character  of  man,  whatever  be  his  race. 

The  white  race  have  ever  occupied  regions  of  the  earth,  where  the 
soil,  the  climate,  and  all  the  influences  around  them,  impelled  to  labor, 
to  thought,  to  contrivance,  for  the  promotion  of  comfort,  yea  even  for  the 
preservation  of  life.  Hence  the  attention  paid  to  agriculture,  to  the 
mechanic  arts,  to  architecture,  and  to  letters.  If  active  and  reflecting, 
he  must  improve,  and  civilization  follows.  If  supine  in  the  regions  he 
inhabits,  the  white  man  would  speedily  perish. 

But  the  negro,  what  call  is  there  for  him  to  exert  himself?  Inhabiting 
chiefly  tropical  regions,  clothing  he  needs  not ;  a  hut,  which  in  a  few  hours 
he  may  construct,  is  all  the  habitation  he  requires,  while  the  soil  he 
treads,  yields  him  spontaneously,  a  superabundant  supply  of  food,  pala- 
table and  wholesome.  Everything  conspires  to  make  the  negro,  in  his 
native  wilds,  indolent,  rude,  and  ignorant,  and  to  keep  him  so.  And  yet, 
from  the  reports  brought  by  Clapperton  and  other  travellers,  it  is  not  im- 
probable, that  even  among  the  negroes  in  the  interior  of  Africa,  a  civiliza- 
tion indigenous  and  unique,  but  considerably  advanced,  has  existed  for  ages. 


470  MAN  ONE   FAMILY 

eluded  in  his  pastoral  charge,  has  often  been  forcibly 
struck  with  the  clear  perceptions,  the  active  fancy,  the 
eloquent  thoughts,  and  the  beautiful  figures  that  mark 
the  prayers,  and  the  exhortations  delivered  occasionally 
to  their  fellow-servants,  by  negroes  of  the  fullest  African 
type ;  sometimes  by  native-born  Africans.  But  little 
more  than  an  hour  previous  to  the  present  moment,  (Tues- 
day, March  23d,  1852,)  in  conducting  his  weekly  service 
among  the  blacks  of  his  charge,  the  prayer  uttered  by  a 
negro  he  called  on  to  lead  in  devotion,  a  thoroughly  un- 
educated negro,  who  cannot  even  read,  chained  his  at- 
tention, and  interested  him  exceedingly  by  its  clearness 
of  thought,  boldness  of  original  imagery,  simple-hearted 
devotion,  and  perfect  good  taste  throughout.  The  germs 
of  a  masterly  eloquence  are  in  that  negro,  and  in  more 
than  one  that  the  writer  could  designate  here  in  Mobile. 

Often,  in  listening  to  the  original  and  felicitous  figures, 
that  leap,  as  it  were,  from  the  negro's  heart  in  prayer, 
has  the  writer  been  reminded  of  that  touching  designation, 
which,  as  he  has  somewhere  read,  the  Bushmen  of  South 
Africa  apply  to  the  Deity,  "  The  Beautiful  P^ 

Medical  men  do  not  come  into  immediate  contact  with 
the  negro  mind,  in  its  free  and  unembarrassed  action,  as 
does  the  minister  of  God's  word.*  (See  Two  Lectures, 
&c.  1849,  pp.  31-33.) 

♦  In  October,  1823,  the  author  was  examined  by  the  Philadelphia 
Presbytery,  and  licensed,  in  company  with  three  other  candidates  for  the 
ministry,  one  of  whom  was  Jeremiah  Gloucester,  a  full-blooded  negro,  the 
son  of  a  negro,  who  was  the  pastor  of  a  colored  church  in  Philadelphia. 
Young  Gloucester  evinced  good  talents.    He  died  early. 

A  few  years  afterwards  a  full-blooded  negro  preached  more  than  once, 
in  the  author's  pulpit,  at  Newark,  N.  J.    On  one  of  those  occasions,  a 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  471 

That  there  is,  in  comparison  with  the  white  man,  any 
essential  inferiority  of  intellect  native  to  the  negro,  the 
observation  and  experience  of  nearly  thirty  years  of 
familiar  intercourse  with  whites  and  with  blacks,  as  a 
minister  of  religion,  (of  which  time  nearly  twenty  years 

man  of  great  intelligence,  and  who  has  since  risen  to  some  distinction,  as 
a  political  editor,  was  awakened  imderthis  negro  preacher. 

There  are  those  now  living  at  Harrisburg,  Penn.  who  must  recollect 
Peter  Miller,  as  he  was  called,  a  black  negro,  a  preacher,  who  visited 
that  place  about  1819.  Miller  proved  himself  a  great  rascal  j  but  he 
was  shrewd,  sensible,  and  certainly,  at  times,  eloquent. 

Somewhere  about  the  year  1828,  while  residing  at  Newark,  N.  J.  when 
attending  the  funeral  of  a  young  negro  man,  the  son-in-law  of  Peter 
Pettit,  (an  old  negro  servant  of  the  family  of  Mr.  Hugh  K.  Toler,  and  who 
was  long  known  as  the  driver  and  owner  of  a  line  of  hacks  then  running 
between  Newark  and  New  York,  long  before  a  rail-road  was  thought  of,) 
the  writer  of  these  pages  found  present  a  young  negro  man,  of  good  ap- 
pearance and  good  address,  a  Mr.  Wright,  a  licensed  preacher,  and  in- 
vited him  to  address  the  company  assembled,  who  were  almost  exclusively 
negroes.  After  some  hesitation,  modest,  but  perfectly  unaffected,  the  in- 
vitation was  accepted  ;  and  a  more  appropriate  and  a  more  touching  ad- 
dress the  author  has  seldom  heard  from  any  minister,  white  or  black. 
Wright  was  a  very  dark  negro,  but  an  educated  man,  trained  in  Princeton 
Seminary,  where  he  was  greatly  respected,  for  his  good  talents,  good 
sense,  and  modesty.  If  yet  living,  he  ought  by  this  time  to  be  a  preacher 
of  great  merit. 

One  other  instance  only  will  be  here  mentioned.  Somewhere  about 
May,  1840,  on  a  steamer  on  the  Delaware  River,  the  author  fell  in  with  a 
black  negro,  unknown  to  him,  and  never  met  with  since.  Abolitionism 
was  the  topic  of  discussion.  That  negro  maintained  a  long  argument 
with  several  gentlemen  around  him ;  he  vindicated  the  claim  of  the 
negro  to  full  equality  with  the  white  man,  intellectually  and  morally, 
both ;  and  he  boldly  took  the  ground,  that  the  negro  is  the  original  type 
of  the  human  race,  and  that  the  white  man  and  the  red,  are  but  degener- 
ated varieties  of  the  negro. 

The  argument  he  conducted  with  great  tact  and  ability,  evincing  a  ready 
wit,  clear  perceptions,  and  considerable  information.  Few  men  could 
acquit  themselves  better  in  oral  discussion  than  did  that  genuine  negro. 


472  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

have  been  spent  amid  the  negro  population  of  the  South,) 
would  never  lead  the  writer  to  believe.  A  difference 
there  certainly  is,  in  the  intellectual  character,  as  well  as 
in  the  physical  organization  of  the  two  races ;  but  a  de- 
cided, and  essential  inferiority  of  the  one  to  the  other, 
in  point  of  intellect,  he  cannot  discern.  A  negro  man, 
quite  black,  John  Moore,  late  a  communicant  in  the 
author's  church,  and  but  lately  deceased,  evinced  as 
much  pathos  and  originality  of  thought  in  prayer,  and 
as  much  ingenuity  and  shrewd  sense  in  reasoning  from 
the  Scriptures,  as  do  nine  tenths  of  the  members  of  our 
white  churches.  In  vividness  of  imagination,  at  least, 
the  negro  would  seem  rather  to  excel  the  white  man. 

It  is,  then,  obvious  to  remark,  that  corroboration  is  lent 
to  Oie  doctrine  of  the  common  origin  of  all  men^  by  the  fact 
that  all  men,  of  all  races,  are  capable  of  religion, — that  Hie 
religion  of  the  Bible  is  adapted  to  all  men, — and  that  its  ef- 
fects on  men  of  all  the  several  races,  when  by  them  it  is 
cordially  embraced,  are  IDENTICAL. 

The  illustration  of  this  point  might  fill  volumes. 

Find  man  where  you  will,  and,  be  he  black  or  white, 
tawny,  olive-complexioned,  or  red,  he  has  his  religious 
system,  the  alleged  cases  in  exception  notwithstanding. 

Moreover,  to  all  the  gospel  is  adapted.  It  appeals 
to  principles  that  are  common  to  all,  and  inherent  in 
each — principles  which  appertain  to  man  alone,  and  which 
distinguish  him  immeasurably  above  the  highest  of  the 
lower  animals. 

Moreover,  wherever  the  religion  of  the  Bible  is  embraced, 
its  practical  operation  is  the  same.  In  persons  totally  un- 
apprized  of  the  nature  of  its  influence  upon  others,  it  pro- 
duces the  same  effects  as  in  all  others.     It  arrests  atten- 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  473 

tion ;  it  produces  deep  solicitude,  under  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal demerit ;  a  simple-hearted  trust  in  the  promises  of 
mercy  through  a  Redeemer ;  a  grateful,  and  sometimes 
a  most  triumphant  joy,  in  the  full  belief  of  pardon  ob- 
tained, and  reconciliation  with  heaven  effected ;  a  warm 
affection  for  all  who  can  be  deemed  good  people  ;  and  an 
intense  desire  to  see  others  embracing  the  same  happy 
religion.  This  identity  of  effect  on  persons  of  the  most 
widely  differing  character,  tastes,  and  races,  even,  is 
manifested  in  every  time  of  increased  religious  interest 
at  the  South.  It  is  amply  testified  in  the  records  of  al- 
most every  missionary  station  in  the  whole  heathen  world. 

Often  has  the  writer  been  struck  with  the  identity  of 
religious  influence  in  persons  the  most  unlike.  The  ac- 
complished lawyer,  the  skilful  physician,  the  refined  lady, 
of  finished  education,  and  the  negro  servants  that  wait 
behind  their  chairs  at  table,  are  sometimes  seen  together 
earnestly  pondering  their  prospects  for  eternity:  and 
though,  in  some  cases,  previously  ignorant,  all  and  equally, 
of  the  process  through  which  the  minds  of  others  have 
been  led  in  the  same  pursuit,  each  one  of  them  is  af- 
fected, substantially,  as  each  other  one  is ;  alarmed,  sor- 
rowing under  conscious  unworthiness,  absorbed  in  prayer, 
faintly  trusting,  joyfully  confident,  very  solicitous  to  be 
made  pure,  and  greatly  desirous  to  induce  others  to  se- 
cure the  same  heavenly  peace. 

All  these  facts,  occurring  every  year  and  almost  every 
day,  and  occurring  at  every  point  on  earth  where  the 
genuine  teachings  of  the  Bible  are  promulgated,  argue 
identity  of  nature  in  all  men  ;  and  they  well  comport  with, 
and  strongly  corroborate,  the  doctrine,  that  all  men,  no 
matter  what  their  complexion  or  their  race,  sprang  ori- 


474  MAN   ONE   FAMILY. 

ginally  from  one  and  the  same  stock.  These  facts  seem 
utterly  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  diversity  of  origin. 

The  records  of  Christian  missions  within  the  last  half- 
century  furnish  a  full  refutation  of  the  objection  which 
has  been  urged  against  the  unity  of  the  human  races,  on 
the  ground  of  incapacity  in  the  dark  races  to  appreciate 
the  elevating  influences  of  Christianity.  Thus,  says  Dr. 
Nott,  (Two  Lectures,  &c.,  1849,  p.  17,)  "  Our  religion, 
once  so  widely  spread  in  Northern  Africa,  disappeared 
with  the  Roman  sword  which  protected  it ;  and  it  needs 
not  the  inspiration  of  a  prophet  to  foretell  that  the  reli- 
gion of  Christ  can  never  be  comprehended  and  adopted  by 
African*  races,  so  long  as  their  physical  type  remains 
unchanged.  What  has  been  the  result  of  missions  to 
Africa,  to  China,  to  India,  to  the  American  Indians,  kc.  ? 
Much  as  we  may  lament  such  a  result,  it  would  seem  as 
if  these  philanthropic  efforts,  so  far  from  producing  good 
fruits  to  the  dark  races,  in  the  main,  do  more  harm  than 
good  I  The  dark  races  borrow  the  vices,  but  never  the 
virtues,  of  the  white  man,"  &c.  &c. 

In  this  passage,  the  direct  bearing  of  Christianityf  on 
the  individual  recipient,  and  its  incidental  results  in  re- 
fining and  elevating  society,  are  confounded.  Of  the  for- 
mer, the  writer  appears  to  be  entirely  unconscious :  hence 

*  Dr.  N.  must  here  have  forgotten  that,  in  other  places,  he  himself 
contends  stoutly  (and  with  justice  and  truth)  for  the  Caucasian  origin 
of  the  tribes  of  Northern  Africa.  (See  Two  Lectures,  1844,  pp.  12-16, 
and  35,  36.  See  also  Professor  Agassiz,  in  the  Christian  Examiner  for 
July,  1860,  p.  134.  See  Morton's  Crania  Americana,  pp.  22-31.  See 
Pickering  on  the  Races,  the  map.) 

f  On  the  capacity  of  the  negro,  and  other  dark  races,  to  derive  benefit 
from  Christianity,  see  some  excellent  remarks  in  Pritchard's  Researches, 
vol.  i.  book  ii.  chap.  i.  p.  212. 


MAN"  ONE  FAMILY.  475 

the  latter  only  does  he  notice.  But  even  of  the  latter  in- 
fluence flowing  from  Christianity  on  the  dark  races,  the 
history  of  Christian  missions  in  the  isles  of  the  great  Pa- 
cific, at  some  stations  in  India,  and  among  several  abori- 
ginal tribes  of  our  own  western  forests,  not  to  mention 
the  negroes  of  the  South,  yields  ample  illustration. 

If  the  dark  races  borrow  the  vices  of  the  irreligious 
white  colonists  and  traders,  that  results,  not  from  the  at- 
tempt to  Christianize  them,  but  from  the  total  absence 
of  discreet  efforts  to  that  end.  Where  the  white  race  has 
approached  the  dark  in  the  true  spirit,  and  bearing  the 
teachings  of  Christianity,  the  dark  races  do  learn  the 
virtues  of  the  Christian  white  man,  assert  the  contrary  who 
may/  The  statistics  of  Christian  missions  at  several 
stations,  show  a  greater  annual  increase  to  the  churches 
there  organized,  than  is  gained  by  a  large  proportion  of 
the  churches  in  this  Christian  land.  (See  Missionary 
Herald  for  several  years  past.) 

The  incapacity  of  the  dark  races  to  appreciate  the  ele- 
vating influences  of  Christianity,  is  a  position  not  borne 
out  by  the  facts  in  the  case  ! 

Dispassionately  examined  with  all  the  facts  in  the  case, 
the  alleged  inferiority  of  the  dark  races  as  to  intellect,  or 
as  to  capacity  for  religious  influence  and  moral  improve- 
ment, presents  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  doctrine  of 
a  common  origin  for  all  the  races  of  mankind. 

Further,  this  doctrine  of  a  common  origin  is  borne  out, 
and  strongly  corroborated  by  the  traditions  everywhere 
prevailing  among  men. 

On  this  point  all  the  traditions  and  the  systems  of 
cosmogony  found  among  the  ancient  Egyptians,  the 
Chaldseans,  the  Hindoos,  the  Chinese,  and  even  among 


4T6i  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

the  barbarous  tribes  of  America,  both  north  and  south, 
(see  on  this  point  Lecture  VI.  of  this  work,  on  Creation, 
and  the  authorities  there  adduced,)  have  a  direct  bearing, 
as  corroborative  evidence. 

But  especially  the  ampler  traditions  of  a  mighty  del- 
uge, and  of  the  preservation  of  only  one  family  from  that 
catastrophe,  and  the  descent  of  all  these  widely  dispersed 
tribes,  which  preserve  these  similar  traditions,  from  that 
one  family  so  preserved,  (see  in  this  work  Lectures  IX. 
and  X.,  on  the  Deluge,)  are  directly  and  strongly  corrobo- 
rative of  the  common  origin  of  all  the  races  of  men  from 
one  primitive  pair.  If  the  doctrine  of  a  diversity  of 
origin  for  the  several  races  of  men  be  admitted,  then  the 
existence  of  all  these  harmonizing  traditions  among  tribes 
of  men  so  widely  dispersed,  and  totally  unconnected  in 
manners,  religion,  language,  and  modes  of  thought,  as 
well  as  by  their  widely  separated  countries,  is  totally  in- 
explicable. These  numerous  and  wonderfully  accordant 
traditions*  may,  of  themselves,  almost  compel  a  belief 
in  a  common  origin  for  all  men. 

♦  For  a  copious  selection  from  these  ancient  traditions,  embodying  tlie 
chief  facts  of  the  early  Mosaic  history,  see  Harcourt's  Doctrine  of  the 
Deluge,  vol.  i,  p.  29,  &c. ;  Faber's  Origin  of  Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  i.  pp. 
200,  206,  208,  also  vol.  ii.  chap.  iv.  pp.  106-124 ;  Faber's  Horae  Mosaicaj, 
chap.  iv. ;  Sumner's  Records  of  Creation ;  Tompkins'  Hulsean  Prize 
Essay,  1849,  p.  91. 

William  Von  Humboldt  says :  "  The  separate  mythical  traditions  found 
to  exist  independently  of  one  another,  in  different  parts  of  the  earth, 
appear  to  refute  the  hypothesis  of  an  original  gregarious  condition  of 
mankind,  (the  very  hypothesis  of  Agassiz,)  and  they  concur  in  ascribing 
the  generations  of  the  whole  human  race  to  the  union  of  one  pair. 

"  The  general  prevalence  of  this  myth,  has  caused  it  to  be  regarded  as 
a  traditionary  record  transmitted  from  the  primitive  man  to  his  descend- 
ants."   (Cosmos,  vol.  i.  p.  366.) 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  477 

See  for  instance,  the  tradition  found  among  the  Iro- 
quois Indians  of  this  country :  they  believe  that  the  first 
woman  was  seduced  from  her  obedience  to  God,  and  that, 
in  consequence  of  it,  she  was  banished  from  heaven. 
She  afterwards  bore  two  sons :  one  of  them,  attacked  and 
slew  the  other.  More  children  afterwards  sprang  from 
the  same  woman,  who  were  the  ancestors  of  mankind. 
(Moeurs  des  Sauvages,  quoted  by  Faber,  in  his  Origin  of 
Pagan  Idolatry,  vol.  ii.  p.  88.) 

Sir  William  Jones  asserts,  "  We  might  produce  from 
the  Puranas  themselves,  and  even  from  the  Veda,  which 
appears  to  stand  next  in  antiquity  to  the  five  books  of 
Moses,  the  same  account  of  the  creation  and  fall,  ex- 
pressed by  symbols  very  nearly  similar."  (Asiat.  Ke- 
searches,  vol.  iii.  p.  425.) 

The  tower  of  Babel  is  mentioned  by  several  ancient 
Greek  writers,  Herodotus,  Strabo,  Diodorus.  The  con- 
fusion of  tongues,  the  ancient  Greeks  attributed  to  the 
anger  of  Saturn.  (Plato  in  Politico.  Philo  de  Confus. 
Ling.  Jacob  Bryant,  Mythol.  vol.  iv.  p.  100.  Clarkson's 
Eesearches.     See  also  Dr.  Bedford,  Scrip.  Verified,  p.  157.) 

Mr.  Burke  of  the  London  Ethnological  Journal  says, 
"  The  fundamental  fables  of  all  the  mythologies,  reach 
back  to  an  extremely  remote  period."  Again,  "  Not  only 
is  there  a  close  connection  between  the  mythologies  and 
religious  views  of  all  the  ancient  centres  of  civilization, 
but  this  connection  also  extends  to  their  arts,  sciences, 
social  institutions,  and  languages,"  (p.  151.)  Again,  (p. 
152,)  this  author  remarks,  *'  We  are  led  to  the  conclusion, 
that  all  ancient  civilization  must  have  sprung  from  some 
common  centred 

Hamilton  Smith  says,  (Natural  History  of  the  Human 


478  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

Species,  p.  176,)  '*  In  high  Asia  we  find  the  legends  of 
Europe,  extant  in  their  sources."  Again,  (p.  170,)  he  re- 
marks, "  The  Hindoo  diluvian  Titan  is  clearly  the  snowy 
group  at  the  sources  of  the  Ganges.  In  this  high  region 
are  the  localities  commemorative  of  traditions  more  than 
once  repeated,  at  successive  more  distant  stages,  in  pro- 
portion as  the  earliest  nations  moved  further  from  their 
original  common  centre,  or  mythical  tales  spread  onwards 
with  time.  There  is  Natabundana,  perhaps  Dhawalag- 
hiri,  where  the  patriarch  god  himself,  in  the  form  of 
Kapila,  conducted  the  ark,  and  secured  it  to  the  rock,  ac- 
cording to  Hindoo  lore;  and,  on  the  north,  where  the 
Tahtar  legend  places  Nataghi,  the  boatman  god  of  the 
mountain,  with  his  family,  in  one  of  the  peaks  of  Altai ; 
for  it  is  not  a  fact  which  always  marks  a  pagan  source,  as 
has  been  remarked,  when  man's  existence  is  made  to 
commence  after  the  diluvian  cataclysis.  There  is  con- 
stantly a  record  of  antecedent  existence,  though  not  a  his- 
tori/,  among  early  nations.  It  is  variously  told,  but  not 
the  less  the  same  in  substance,  in  both  hemispheres,  and 
in  the  South  Sea  islands,"  (p.  171.) 

Again,  remarks  the  same  writer,  "  There  cannot  be  a 
doubt,  that  with  scarce  an  opposable  circumstance,  all 
man's  historical  dogmatic  knowledge,  and  traditionary 
records,  all  his  acquirements,  inventions,  and  domestic 
possessions  point  to  Central  Asia,  as  the  locality  connect- 
ed with  a  great  cataclysis,  and  as  the  scene  where  human 
development  took  its  first,  most  evident  distribution," 
(p.  171.) 

Humboldt  mentions  a  similar  tradition  of  a  great  del- 
uge, as  prevailing  among  the  rude  tribes  on  the  Orinoco 
in  South  America. 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  479 

The  tradition  among  the  Tamanacs  further  relates  that 
"  a  man  and  a  woman,  with  a  canoe,  saved  themselves 
upon  a  high  mountain  called  Tamanacu,  and  that  throw- 
ing behind  them,  over  their  heads,  the  fruit  of  the  Mau- 
ritia  palm,  they  saw,  arising  from  the  nuts  of  these  palms, 
men  and  women,  who  repeopled  the  earth."  Here  among 
the  savages  of  South  America  is  a  fable  similar  to  that 
of  Pyrrha  and  Deucalion,  commemorating  the  grand 
catastrophe,  of  a  general  inundation. 

"  These  ancient  traditions  of  the  human  race,"  (says 
Humboldt,)  "  which  we  find  dispersed  over  the  surface  of 
the  globe,  like  the  fragments  of  a  vast  shipwreck,  are  of  the 
greatest  interest  in  the  philosophical  study  of  our  species. 
Like  certain  families  of  plants,  which,  notwithstanding 
the  diversity  of  climates  and  the  influence  of  heights,  re- 
tain the  impress  of  a  common  type,  so  the  traditions 
respecting  the  primitive  state  of  the  globe,  present  among 
all  nations,  a  resemblance  that  fills  us  with  astonishment : 
so  many  different  languages,  belonging  to  branches  which 
appear  to  have  no  connection  with  each  other,  transmit 
the  same  facts  to  us.  The  substance  of  the  traditions 
respecting  the  destroyed  races  and  the  renovation  of  na- 
ture, is  everywhere  almost  the  same,  although  each  nation 
gives  it  a  local -coloring.  In  the  great  continents,  as  in 
the  smallest  islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  it  is  always  on 
the  highest  and  nearest  mountains,  that  the  remains  of 
the  human  race  were  saved :  and  this  event  appears  so 
much  the  more  recent,  the  more  uncultivated  the  nations 
are."   (Humboldt's  Travels  and  Researches,  pp.  190-192.) 

This  last  named  circumstance  necessarily  results  from 
the  distinctness  with  which  the  facts  are  carefully  handed 
down  by  tradition,  while  the  rude  tribes  have  no  clear 


480  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

ideas  of  number  or  duration.  Humboldt  found  also 
strange  symbolical  figures  and  hieroglyphic  inscriptions, 
high  on  the  ro^cks  near  the  Orinoco,  commemorative  of 
this  event,    (p.  191.) 

Dr.  Bedford  (Scrip.  Verif.  p.  113,)  remarks,  "The 
evidence  on  this  subject  is  both  universal  and  complete ; 
the  harmony  in  the  traditions  of  all  nations,  in  all  parts 
of  the  earth,  is  such  as  could  have  arisen  only  from  the 
fact  itself.  There  are  no  conflicting  traditions  among 
either  the  ancients  or  the  moderns.  They  all  embody 
but  one  story."  (p.  113.) 

Baron  Cuvier  thus  argues  from  these  traditions: 
"  Could  the  traditionary  ideas  of  nations,  who  possessed 
almost  no  natural  affinities,  whose  language,  religion,  and 
laws  had  nothing  in  common,  could  they  all  conspire  to 
one  point,  did  not  truth  bring  them  together?" 

It  is  plain  that  Moses  could  not  have  known  that  these 
traditions  did  exist  and  would  continue  to  exist  and  be 
handed  down  among  men  everywhere,  and  so  adapt  his 
history  to  the  traditions.  That  is  utterly  impossible. 
It  is  equally  plain  that  all  the  nations  and  tribes  on  earth, 
have  not  gathered  the  materials  for  these  traditions  from 
the  books  of  Moses ;  for,  to  nearly  all  these  nations,  these 
books  are  still  unknown.  There  is  no  possibility  of  ac- 
counting for  the  stubborn  facts  in  this  case,  but  by  ad- 
mitting the  truth  of  the  deluge  as  literally  universal,  and 
the  rescue  from  that  deluge  of  one  family  alone,  as  Moses 
relates,  and  as  these  traditions  all  unanimously  declare ; 
but  if  so,  then  all  the  different  races  now  on  earth  have 
one  common  origin ;  they  are,  without  one  solitary  excep- 
tion, descended  from  the  one  family  which  alone  sur- 
vived the  deluge  in  the  days  of  Noah. 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  481 

Sir  W.  Jones,  in  a  discourse  on  the  "  Origin  and  Fami- 
lies of  Nations,"  thus  argues:*  "That  Nature,  of  which 
simplicity  appears  a  distinguishing  attribute,  does  nothing 
in  vain,  is  an  axiom  in  philosophy.  But  it  is  vain  and 
superfluous  to  do  hy  many  means,  what  maybe  done  hy  fewer, 
"We  must  not,  therefore,  as  says  the  great  Newton,  admit 

*  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  iii.  p.  420. 

Mr.  Cony,  in  the  Introductory  Dissertation,  prefixed  to  his  learned 
"  Ancient  Fragments,"  remarks  "  Mr.  Faber,  in  his  admirable  work  on  the 
Pagan  Idolatry,  has  collected  and  separately  examined  all  the  different 
systems  of  the  Heathen  Mythologies ;  and  has  shown,  that  there  is  such 
a  singular,  minute,  and  regular  accordance  among  all  these  systems,  not 
only  in  what  is  obvious  and  natural,  but  also  in  what  is  arbitrary  and  cir- 
cumstantial, both  in  fanciful  speculations  and  in  artificial  observances,''^  as 
to  render  untenable  every  other  hypothesis  than  this,  "  that  they  must 
all  have  originated  from  some  common  source,"  (p.  vi.) 

In  the  same  manner,  (says  Mr.  Cony,  p.  vii.)  we  may  ascertain  the  re- 
gion from  which  mankind  originally  dispersed ;  and  from  the  testimonies  of 
Egypt,  India  and  Phoenicia,  no  less  than  from  Greece,  respecting  the  grand 
events  of  primeval  history,  the  birth  and  achievements  of  their  gods  and  he- 
roes, the  deluge,  the  origin  of  arts,  and  the  civilization  of  mankind,  taking 
only  such  as  are  substantiated  by  the  concurrent  testimony  of  the  rest, 
it  may  be  shown  independently  of  Scripture,  that  the  primitive  settle- 
ments of  mankind  were  in  such  places,  and  attended  with  such  circum- 
stances, as  the  Scripture  instructs  us  was  the  case.    (p.  vii.) 

In  the  remains  of  Phoenician  history  by  Sanconiatho,  who  wrote  in  the 
old  Phoenician,  and  who  is  supposed  to  be  the  oldest  writer  of  the  hea- 
then world,  we  have  much  that  is  valuable. 

In  the  Generations,  the  first  contains  an  allusion  to  the  fall ;  and  the 
second  to  Cain,  In  the  Chaldaean  fragments  of  Berosus,  the  Babylonian, 
is  much  that  is  curious. 

Berosus  has  given  a  full  and  accurate  description  of  the  deluge,  which 
is  wonderfully  consonant  with  the  Mosaic  accounts,  (p.  xiii.) 

The  Fragment  of  Nicolaus  Damascenus,  relates  also  to  the  deluge,  the 
ark,  and  its  resting  upon  Mount  Ararat.  (Cony's  Ancient  Fragments, 
Introd.  Diss.  p.  xiii.) 

A  full  account  of  the  tower  at  Babel  is  also  given  in  Berosus  from 
Abydenus,  (pp.  34,  35.) 

21 


482  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

more  causes  of  natural  things^  than  those  which  are  true,  and 
sufficiently  ajccountfor  natural  phenomena.  But  it  is  true 
that  one  pair,  at  least,  of  every  living  species,  must  have 
been  at  first  created ;  and  that  one  human  pair  was  suffi- 
cient for  the  population  of  our  globe  in  a  period  of  no 
considerable  length,  (on  the  very  moderate  supposition 
of  lawyers  and  political  arithmeticians,  that  every  pair 
of  ancestors  left,  on  an  average,  two  children,  and  each 
of  them  two  more,)  is  evident  from  the  rapid  increase  of 
numbers  in  geometrical  progression,  so  well  known  to 
those  who  have  ever  taken  the  trouble  to  form  a  series  of 
so  many  terms  as  they  suppose  generations  of  men  in 
two  or  three  thousand  years.  It  follows,  therefore,  that 
the  author  of  nature  created  but  one  pair  of  our  species ; 
yet  had  it  not  been  for  the  desolations  occasioned  by 
water  and  fire,  earthquakes,  war,  famine  and  pestilence, 
the  earth  would  not  now  have  had  room  for  its  multi- 
plied inhabitants.     (Asiatic  Kesearches,  vol.  iii.  p.  420.) 

Reason^  tradition^  and  the  Mosaic  record  dOj  then^  all  com- 
bine to  assure  us,  all  men,  of  all  the  different  races  now  ex- 
isting, have  originated  from  one  primitive  pair. 

Another  argument  for  the  oneness  of  man's  origin  is 
derived  from  the  very  early  spread  of  civilization. 

Many  writers  seem  to  suppose  that  man  originated  in 
barbarism,  and  by  a  long  and  tedious  process  gradually 
improved  himself,  until  he  became  civilized ;  and  that, 
therefore,  the  antediluvians,  and  the  early  nations  after 
the  flood,  must  have  been  little  better  than  savages.  If 
mankind  originated  in  separate  and  far  distant  localities, 
the  several  races  would  have  long  continued  separate 
and  without  intercourse  one  with  another,  and  barbarism 
might  have  long  prevailed.     But  if  mankind  were  all  of 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  483 

one  stock,  the  antediluvians  would  have  had  constant  in- 
tercourse one  with  another ;  and  the  original  perfection 
of  the  nature  which  the  Mosaic  narrative  leads  us  to  be- 
lieve was  conferred  on  man,  would  produce  the  arts  and 
refinements  of  civilized  life  at  a  very  early  period.  And 
this  the  Mosaic  history  of  antediluvian  times  seems  ne- 
cessarily to  imply.  (See  Gen.  chap,  iv.)  The  construction 
of  the  ark  by  ISToah,  implies  a  very  advanced  state  of 
knowledge  and  of  the  arts  of  life.  This  knowledge  and 
skill  in  the  mechanic  arts,  we  cannot  suppose  would  be 
lost  among  the  descendants  of  Noah.  The  probability 
is,  that  great  and  rapid  improvements  would  everywhere 
be  made.  The  attempt  to  erect  a  lofty  tower  at  Babel 
corroborates  this  supposition.  The  same  attention  to 
the  arts,  to  building,  carpentry,  the  working  in  metals, 
(which  implies  a  knowledge  of  mining,  of  chemistry,  of 
mathematics,)  would  be  carried  with  them  by  the  sepa- 
rate branches  of  the  Koachian  family,  in  their  migrations 
to  the  several  regions  where  they  finally  settled.  Hence 
we  can  account  for  the  abundant  evidence  of  early  civil- 
ization, even  from  the  remotest  times,  in  nearly  all  coun- 
tries on  the  face  of  the  globe. 

Thus,  in  the  Ethnological  Journal,  we  read,  (p.  152,) 
"  The  earliest  historical  traditions  date  their  origin,  not 
from  periods  of  barbarism,  but  from  periods  of  high 
civilization.  Menes,  the  first  mortal  king  of  Egypt,  was 
a  great  conqueror.  Some  of  his  immediate  successors 
are  stated  to  have  built  pyramids,  and  such  like  mighty 
works." 

Again,  (p.  154,)  "  That  a  high  degree  of  civilization 
existed  in  times  long  anterior  to  the  commencement  of 
regular  history,  is  a  position  which  cannot  be  much  longer 


484  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

denied.  It  was  not  by  barbarians  that  the  pyramids, 
temples,  and  other  vast  works  of  Africa  were  erected. 
The  cave  temples*  of  India  are  the  remnants  of  a  civil- 
ization whose  memory  has  wholly  perished  ;  while  nei- 
ther the  traditions  nor  history  of  Italyf  and  Greece  en- 
able us  even  to  conjecture  who  were  the  nations  that 
erected  their  Cyclopean  buildings.     (See  Lepsius,  Chro- 

*  For  an  account  of  the  cave  temples  of  India,  see  Pickering  on  the 
Races,  p.  349,  &c. ;  also  Elliot's  India,  passim ;  Recollections  of  North- 
ern India,  by  Buyers,  chapters  vii.,  viii.,  and  xvii. ;  Forbes'  Eleven  Years 
in  Ceylon,  vol.  i.  chap.  vii.  vili.  ix,  x.,  and  vol.  ii.  Appendix.  See  also 
in  rUnivers  Pittoresque,  "  Inde,  par  MM.  Dubois  de  Jancigny  ct  X. 
Raymond,"  plates  19-34  inclusive,  and  the  description  in  the  body  of  the 
work, 

f  For  the  remains  of  ancient  art  in  Italy,  consult  Pritchard's  Re- 
searches, vol.  iii,  chap,  iv;  Mrs.  II.  Gray's  Etruria;  and  Lepsius,  "  Chro- 
nologie  der  Egypter,"  p.  2. 

Lepsius  says :  •'  The  only  way  in  which  we  can  hope  to  arrive  at  cor- 
rect views  of  the  history  of  Greece  and  Italy,  from  a  period  which  has 
been  generally  abandoned  to  mythology  beyond  the  limits  of  history,  is 
by  combined  efforts  in  archasological  research  among  the  monumental 
remains  of  those  remote  times.  The  fantastic-rich  world  of  art  of  the 
Pelasgic  pre-Etruscan  age,  the  primitive  medal  system  (Miintz  system) 
of  the  primitive  Italian  populations,  and  the  fragments  of  sculpture,  the 
vases,  and  varied  remains  of  art  from  the  ruins  and  the  environs  of 
Mycene,  Troy,  and  other  cities,  once  flourishing  in  heroic  times,  and 
disappearing  with  them,  the  tombs,  aqueducts,  (or  fountains.)  with  stone 
vaults,  (arches,)  from  a  time  anterior  to  the  invention  of  the  concentric 
arch — which  are  found  all  over  Italy,  Greece,  and  Asia  Minor— loom  up 
like  monuments  of  stone  and  metal,  above  the  misty  sea  of  ever-varying 
fable,  and  may  now  be  esteemed  as  historical  monuments,  because  they 
represent  historic  circumstances. 

*•  But,  (adds  our  learned  author,)  even  the  utmost  limits  of  Greek 
antiquity,  can  hardly  be  extended  beyond  the  Homeric  times ;  and  in 
the  antiquity  of  Rome,  not  higher  than  that  of  the  latest  kings."  (Chro- 
nologic der  Egypter,  p.  2.  See  also  Richardson's  Geology,  p.  90 ;  Lyell's 
Principles  of  Geology,  p.  708.) 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  486 

nologie  der  Egypter,  p.  2  .)  Even  in  the  New  World, 
the  kingdoms  destroyed  by  the  Spaniards  were  founded 
on  the  ruins  of  far  mightier  empires,  whose  shattered 
works  speak  of  a  condition  and  a  power,  rivalling  in  great- 
ness and  in  antiquity  that  of  Egypt  itself  " 

Again,  this  writer  says:  "The  further  back  we  re- 
mount into  ancient  times,  the  more  do  we  find  the  ves- 
tiges of  their  power,  the  more  pure  and  elevated  the  tra- 
ditions of  their  philosophy." 

Again,  he  remarks,  p.  157 :  "  The  mythologies  and 
primeval  traditions  of  all  enlightened,  and  even  of  the 
most  barbarous  tribes,  are  fundamentally  the  same. 
Everywhere  we  find  certain  singular  coincidences  in  cus- 
toms, opinions,  language,  &c.,  which^  the  more  fully  they  are 
developed^  the  more  clearly  are  they  found  to  point  to  a  com- 
mon source.^'' 

The  learned  Dr.  Tholuck  says  :  "  That  a  higher  con- 
dition of  the  human  race  has  preceded  the  lower,  is  a 
truth  which,  at  all  times,  by  the  profoundest  men,  has 
been  acknowledged."  (See  Neander's  Denkwiirdig  Kei- 
ten,  vol.  i.  p.  234 ;  Obs.  note  1.) 

All  this  accords  precisely  to  the  universal  tradition, 
that  a  golden,  a  silver,  a  brass,  and  an  iron  age,  have 
succeeded  each  other  in  the  history  of  mankind.  (See 
Heeren's  Asia,  vol.  i.  chap.  ii.  pp.  311,  333,  363,  366.) 

Tompkins,  in  his  Hulsean  Prize  Essay,  1840,  affirms : 
"  The  theory  that  the  human  race  has  emerged  from  a 
state  of  proper  barbarism,  may  be  safely  considered  as 
exploded,  and  that  on  purely  scientific  grounds. 

"  Researches  into  the  physical  history  of  man  have  gone 
hand  in  hand  with  investigations  of  his  language,  at 
once  extensive  and  minute ;  and  both  have  tended  to 


486  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

prove,  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt,  in  the  first  place, 
that  at  least  all  those  nations  with  whose  literature  and 
religion  we  are  best  acquainted,  must  have  had  a  common 
origin  /  But  the  same  investigations  show  that,  so  far 
from  having  ascended,  in  the  course  of  ages,  from  an 
almost  brutal  type  to  his  present  condition,  the  general 
course  of  things  has  been  the  reverse.  Even  of  the  Af- 
rican tribes^  it  has  been  shown  Oief/  have  sunk  to  tlieir  pres- 
ent low  grade  within  historic  times  J**  (p.  24.) 

Again,  this  writer  remarks,  "  Wherever  ancient  monu- 
ments remain  to  show  the  earlier  type  of  nations  now 
both  physically  and  morally  debased,  they  invariably 
prove  that  that  type  approached  a  standard  of  a  higher 
order,  **  (p.  26.)  We  must  therefore  either  assume  an  eter- 
nal existence  of  a  human  society,  or  a  point  of  time  in 
which  God  himself  brought  into  existence  the  human 
being  already  trained  in  his  present  relations  of  life. 

*  Pickering,  in  hiB  ralnable  work  on  the  races,  suggests  the  idea  that 
AfHca  WM  the  original  centre  of  the  earth's  iM>pulation,  and  that  from 
that  region  the  several  settlements  of  mankind  were  sent  forth.  Dr. 
Pickering  produces  some  striking  considerations  in  support  of  his  theory. 
(Bee  his  work,  p.  806.) 

It  is  a  curious  and  interesting  fkct,  though  not  much  noticed  by  wri- 
ters on  these  subjects,  that  Bratosthenes,  himself  an  African,. a  native 
of  the  Qreek  colony  of  Cyrene,  and  who  was,  probably  without  exception, 
the  most  learned  man  of  all  the  ancients,  possessed  of  more  extensive 
information  than  Aristotle  himself,  and  who  was  also  the  preceptor  of 
the  celebrated  Ocographer  Strabo,  when  tracing  the  connection  between 
Southern  Africa  and  its  native  tribes,  with  Asia  towards  India,  and  with 
the  Egyptians,  asserts,  (as  Strabo  himself  informs  us.)  "  The  four  prin- 
cipal races  of  South  Africa  have  not  only  a  well-regulated  monarchical 
institution,  but  also  stately  temples  and  royal  palaces ;  the  beams  in 
their  houses  are  arranged  like  those  of  the  Egyptians."  (Strabo,  xvi.  c. 
iv.    See  also  Bunsen,  Egypt's  Place,  &c.,  vol.  i.  pp.  119, 120.) 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  487 

Now  the  Bible  tells  us  that  man  has  fallen  from  his 
original  dignity :  yet  he  brought  with  him,  into  his  fallen 
state,  many  high  qualifications  and  powers  from  that 
more  happy  time.  If  it  were  not  so,  the  most  important 
appearances  of  the  most  ancient  history ,  would  be  inexplica- 
ble. The  facts  meeting  our  view  in  evidence  of  a  high 
civilization  in  almost  every  country,  long  anterior  to  his- 
toric times,  and  anterior  even  to  tradition,  go  directly  to 
illustrate  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  doctrines  as  to  the  early 
condition  of  society,  and  also  as  to  the  descent  of  all 
varieties  of  men  from  one  common  stock,  originally  very 
elevated,  intellectually  and  morally  both,  though  subse- 
quently, degraded  morally,  without  having  lost  entirely 
the  high  faculties  originally  conferred  on  the  primitive 
stock.  There  are  too  many  points  of  resemblance  among 
all  the  great  subdivisions  of  the  human  family,  (a  resem- 
blance approximating  to  identity  of  character  and  of 
powers,)  to  leave  room  for  the  supposition  that  the  several 
races  of  men  could,  by  any  possibility,  have  had  each  an 
independent  origin,  at  so  many  separate  and  far  distant 
points. 

Finally,  the  languages  of  manJcind  afford  evidence  SLmownt- 
ing  to  demonstration,  that  all  the  now  differing  races  of  men 
must  have  had  a  common  origin  ! 

This  point  has  been  so  ably  argued  by  Dr.  Wiseman,  a 
learned  dignitary  of  the  Romish  hierarchy,  in  his  twelve 
Lectures  on  the  connection  between  Science  and  Revela- 
tion, (see  Lectures  i.  and  ii.  vol.  i.)  that  but  little  is  left 
for  fresh  explorers  in  the  same  field. 

Whoever  considers  the  nature  of  language,  the  philo- 
sophical character  of  its  structure,  even  in  languages  of 
the  rudest  tribes,  must  be  satisfied,  that  language,  like 


488  MAN   ONE   FAMILY. 

reason,  is  a  divine  gift,  a  sort  of  inferior  inspiration  from 
the  Almighty. 

That  men  should  have  invented  the  languages  they 
speak  is  simply  a  sheer  impossihilUy  ;  as  a  little  reflection 
will  show.  Like  thought  it  is  natural  to  man ;  like  his 
physical  frame,  it  is  of  complicated  structure,  yet  diver- 
sified as  are  the  complexions  of  men  who  speak  it.  It  is 
found,  also,  to  accord  in  many  of  its  characteristics,  to  the 
peculiar  disposition  and  temperament  of  those  who  speak  it. 

If  in  anything  relating  to  man,  the  controlling  influ- 
ence of  the  One  Supreme  Mind  is  manifested,  it  is  in  the 
nature,  the  characteristics,  the  logical  structure  of  lan- 
guage as  such,  and  in  the  wonderful  variety  of  forms, 
varying  with  the  varying  characteristics  of  those  who 
speak  it;  and  yet  evincing  the  power  of  fundamental 
principles,  common  to  all  languages.  The  striking  iden- 
tity, in  unison  with  an  endless  variety,  is  in  perfect  ac- 
cordance, with  the  identity  of  human  nature  itself,  in  all 
the  numerous  varieties  of  man  1 

If  originally  one  family,  as  Moses  relates,  man  must 
have  spoken,  at  first,  but  one  primitive  tongue.  If  so, 
then  whatever  changes  may  have  been  subsequently 
wrought  on  languages,  still  amid  all  the  diversified  classes 
of  spoken  languages  and  dialects,  some  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  structure,  some  organic  materials,  the  evidence 
of  a  common  origin,  may  be  expected  to  present  them- 
selves in  all  languages:  and  such  precisely  is  the  fact. 
The  question,  "  Were  all  human  languages  originally  one!'' 
is  replete  with  interest,  and  has  occasioned  most  laborious 
research  by  men  of  the  very  highest  talent.  On  this 
question  Dr.  Bedford,  thus  forcibly  writes:  (See  his 
Scrip.  Verified,  p.  159.) 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  489 

"  This  is  a  question  which  has  been  long  and  labori- 
ously treated,  and  until  late  years,  with  an  aspect  far 
from  favorable  towards  the  Mosaic  record.  The  course 
of  inquiry  seemed  to  prove,  that  the  immense  differences 
existing  among  the  languages  of  the  world,  could  never 
have  arisen  out  of  a  common  or  parent  stock ;  but  as 
these  inquiries  have  advanced,  and  become  matured,  un- 
suspected affinities  have  been  discovered,  and  fragments 
of  some  original  tongue  have  appeared  everywhere  trace- 
able, as  supplying  common  elements  to  them  all. 

"  Moreover,  it  has  been  determined  by  these  researches, 
that  as  each  class  of  languages  is  marked  by  affinities 
with  other  classes,  and  these  affinities  bear  no  trace  of 
being  descended  lineally  from  each  other,  but  to  be  inde- 
pendent branches  from  a  common  stock,  or  root ;  the  con- 
clusion is  naturally  and  necessarily  drawn,  that,  at  one 
period^  there  existed  only  that  one  form  of  language^  which 
has  communicated  these  common  elements  to  all,  and 
which  so  identify  and  concentrate  them,  as  to  make  it 
next  to  impossible  that  they  should  have  had  independent 
and  original  formations  of  their  own.  The  differences 
are  not  great  enough  to  necessitate  independent  origina- 
tions, and  the  resemblances  are  too  striking  to  comport 
with  any  theory  but  that  of  a  common  source.  So  that 
the  strictly  philological  controversy  may  now  be  said,  to 
have  deprived  the  unbeliever  of  all  right  to  question  this 
one  part  of  the  Mosaic  statement." 

Even  those  who  like  Klaproth,  entertain  no  reverence 
for  the  sacred  history,  still  accede  to  the  theory  of  a  sin- 
gle primitive  tongue.  Referring  to  his  own  researches,  the 
celebrated  Klaproth  says,  "The  universal  affinity  of 
language  is  placed  in  so  strong  a  light,  that  it  must  he 

21* 


490  MAN   ONE   FAMILY. 

considered  hy  all  as  completely  demonstrated.  This  (the 
affinity,)  appears  inexplicable  on  any  other  hypothesis 
than  that  of  admitting  fragments  of  a  primary  language^ 
to  exist  through  all  the  languages  of  the  old  and  new- 
world."     ("  Asia  Polyglotta."     Vorrede,  s.  ix.) 

Frederic  Schlegel,  Paravey,  Marian,  Humboldt,  Her- 
der, and  all  the  most  eminent  linguists  and  philosophers 
have  come  to  the  same  conclusion. 

The  celebrated  philologist,  Count  de  Gebelin,  expressed 
his  decided  opinion,  thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  in  the 
"  History  of  Languages,"  published  originally  in  his  great 
work,  "  Le  Monde  primitif  analis^,"  9  vol.  4to.  that  "  all 
existing  languages  are  derived  from  one^ 

Herder,  though  no  believer  in  the  inspiration  of 
Moses,  is  yet  as  clear  and  strong  upon  this  point  as  we 
could  wish.  He  says,  "As  the  human  race  is  a  pro- 
gressive whole,  the  parts  of  which  are  intimately  con- 
nected, so  must  language  form  also  a  united  whole,  de- 
pendent  upon  a  common  origin.  There  is  a  great  probability 
that  the  human  race^  and  lajiguage  tlwrewith^  go  back  to  a 
common  stock,  to  a  first  man,  and  not  to  several^  dispersed  m 
different  parts  of  Oiie  worW^  He  even  infers,  that  mankind 
must,  in  the  first  instance,  have  been  "  widely  and  sud- 
denly divided  r  (pp.  160,  161.) 

Abel  Remusat,  the  learned  author  of  "Researches 
into  the  Tartar  Languages,"  admits  that  "beyond  the 
epoch  when  profane  history  ceases,  there  was  a  confusion 
(of  tongues)  which  gave  rise  to  them  all,  and  which  such 
vain  attempts  have  been  made  to  explain,"  (p.  16L) 

The  editor  of  the  London  Ethnological  Journal,  (p.  155,) 
remarks,  "  It  is  not  only  in  civilized,  and  partially  civil- 
ized countries  that  we  find  traces  of  the  old  religions  and 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  491 

mythologies.  We  are  perpetually  startled  by  their  oc- 
currence when  investigating  the  superstitions  of  the  most 
remote  and  barbarous  tribes.  In  Europe  and  Asia,  we 
meet  them  among  the  northern  Fins  and  Laplanders, 
and  Samoides,  and  Ostiacks,  and  Tongonsi ;  we  meet 
them  in  New  Zealand,  and  in  numerous  other  islands  of 
the  Pacific,  and  we  meet  them  in  the  wilds  of  North 
America.  And  wherever  we  meet  them,  we  also  meet 
numerous  words  derived  from  the  very  languages  to  which 
the  antique  civilizations  can  be  traced." 

Again,  on  pp.  151  and  152  of  the  same  journal,  occurs 
this  passage  :  "  When  we  select  from  a  multitude  of  dia- 
lects the  words  which  have  immediate  relation  with  re- 
ligion,  art,  learning,  and  civilization  in  general,  we  are 
struck  with  surprise  at  the  unexpected  affinities  which 
present  themselves  between  languages,  in  many  respects, 
the  most  different.  When  we  next  reduce  to  their  ele- 
ments, these  similar  words,  by  dividing  those  that  are 
obviously  compound,  and  stripping  verbs  and  nouns  of 
their  prefixes  and  terminations,  we  bring  the  greater  part 
of  them  into  three  or  four  classes,  each  immediately  re- 
lated to  one  or  other  of  the  primeval  languages  of  the 
ancient  world,  while  these  languages  are  all  found  to  be 
connected  together  by  numerous  affinities." 

The  early  opinion  of  the  distinguished  scholar  and  his- 
torian Niehbuhr,  was  opposed  to  the  doctrine  of  a  vio- 
lent and  miraculous  confusion  of  tongues  ;  but  his  later 
and  more  matured  judgment  is  given  in  favor  of  the  Mo- 
saic account.  He  sa3's,  "  This  fallacy  escaped  detection 
among  the  ancients,  probably  because  they  admitted  sev- 
eral distinct  races  of  mankind.  They  who  deny  these, 
(distinct  races,)  and  go  back  to  a  single  pair,  mv^t^  to  ac- 


492  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

count  for  the  existence  of  idioms  different  in  structure, 
SUPPOSE  A  MIRACLE ;  and,  for  those  languages  which 
differ  in  roots  and  essential  qualities,  adhere  to  that  of 
^the  confusion  of  tongn^es^  The  admission  of  such  a  mira- 
cle offends  not  reason,  since,  as  the  remains  of  the  an- 
cient world  clearly  show,  that,  before  the  present,  an- 
other order  of  life  existed,  so  it  is  certainly  credible  that 
this  lasted  entire  after  the  commencement,  and  under- 
went, at  some  period,  an  essential  change."  (See  his 
History  of  Rome.     See  also  Bedford,  pp.  162,  163.) 

These  testimonies  are  of  the  more  importance,  since 
they  come  from  philosophers,  nearly  all  of  whom  are  un- 
friendly to  revelation.  They  clearly  establish  the  fact 
of  an  original  unity  of  speech. 

But  the  demonstrated  unity  of  speech,  is  of  itself  a 
strong  proof  of  the  original  unity  of  all  the  human  races 
— their  descent  from  one  common  primitive  stock.  The 
original  unity  of  all  languages  being  thus  established, 
the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  confusion  of 
tongues  at  Babel,  may  be  thus  argued.  If  there  was  at 
first  one  only  language  spoken  on  earth,  while  yet  in 
the  remotest  periods  of  which  historic  records  or  tradi- 
tions have  reached  us,  many  various  languages  were  al- 
ready spoken,  then  it  is  plain,  from  the  slowness  with 
which  languages  now  change,  notwithstanding  all  the 
numerous  sources  of  corruption  and  admixture,  the  oc- 
currence of  some  sudden  and  anomalous  event  that 
speedily  broke  men  off  into  distinct  bands,  and  effec- 
tually changed  their  language,  becomes  highly  probable. 

Since  we  now  find  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  changes 
effected  by  national  convulsions,  and  the  mingling  of 
foreign  words  and  strange  dialects,  the  Saxon  tongue  has 


MAN  ONE  FAMILY.  493 

remained  essentially  unchanged  for  2,000  years — the 
Arabic  is  unchanged  by  the  lapse  of  time — and  even  the 
modern  Italian  is,  as  to  its  main  and  essential  points,  the 
very  Latin  of  the  Roman  dominion — and  since,  moreover, 
we  know  that  radically  different  languages  were  spoken 
among  different  branches  of  the  human  family  within  a 
few  centuries  after  the  flood,  there  was  not  time  for  the 
one  primitive  language  to  branch  off  into  several  lan- 
guages naturally^  and  under  the  ordinary  influences  now 
operating,  because  no  foreign  languages  originally  existed 
to  furnish  the  means  of  intermixture  with  it,  and  corruption 
of  it.  The  change  must  then  have  been  sudden  ;  and  if  sud- 
den^ it  must  have  been  miraculous,  which  is  precisely  what 
Moses  teaches. 

From  sources  the  most  unexpected  and  the  most  di- 
verse, we  thus  find  evidence  springing  up  of  the  truth 
of  the  several  teachings  of  the  books  of  Moses. 

The  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  human  species,  of 
the  common  descent  of  all  the  several  races  of  mankind, 
however  widely  differing  among  themselves,  from  one 
primitive  pair,  the  origin  of  the  whole  population  of  the 
globe,  is  not,  it  must  be  confessed,  unattended  with  dif- 
ficulties, physiologically  considered ;  and  some  natural- 
ists of  eminence  demur  to  this  doctrine  :  but  these  diffi- 
culties, when  calmly  considered,  sink  into  insignificance, 
before  the  varied  and  overwhelming  proofs  which  go  to 
establish  the  original  unity  of  the  races. 

The  doctrine  of  diversity  of  human  races  contemplates 
man  as  only  an  animal.  That  doctrine  rests  much  on  a 
mere  assumption  of  a  point  questionable  at  the  best.  It 
overlooks  the  fact,  that  in  one  important  characteristic 
of  species  the  varieties  of  men  are  not  specific,  in  the 


494  MAN  ONE   FAMILY. 

full  sense  in  whicli  species  are  distinguished  in  the  lower 
animals :  the  varieties  of  men  intermingle  freely,  and 
their  offspring  are  not  sterile,  as  is  the  case  normally, 
among  lower  animals.  That  theory  overlooks  the  many 
weighty  points  in  which  as  intellectual,  speech-using,  and 
conscience-possessing  beings,  capable  of  indefinite  pro- 
gress and  improvement,  all  the  human  races  present 
points  of  resemblance  and  almost  of  identity,  which 
throw  at  an  unapproachable  distance  from  them  all,  even 
the  highest  orders  of  the  inferior  creation,  rendering  a 
classification  of  man,  on  principles  adapted  only  to  the 
brutes,  inapplicable,  inappropriate,  and  therefore  unphil- 
osophical.  That  theory  involves  also  the  disregard  of 
an  admitted  axiom  in  philosophy,  which  forbids  the  in- 
troduction of  more  causes  than  are  needed  to  account  for 
the  effect,  since  the  known  laws  of  increase  will  readily 
admit  the  population  of  the  globe  as  now  from  one 
original  human  pair.  From  all  these  circumstances,  nat- 
uralists of  eminence  have  rejected,  on  purely  scientifie 
grounds,  the  doctrine  of  diversity  of  races,  and  have 
maintained  the  original  identity  of  all  the  races  of  men. 
Besides  all  this,  the  ablest  advocates  of  diversity  of 
races,  have  utterly  failed  in  all  their  attempts  to  reconcile 
their  theory  with  the  teachings  of  revelation.  They  are 
compelled  to  use  the  word  species  with  at  least  a  modified 
meaning,  in  their  philosophical  reasonings  ;  and  they  are 
compelled  also  to  put,  upon  several  passages  of  holy  writ, 
an  interpretation  novel,  unnatural,  and  absolutely  unten- 
able. Their  theory  is  also  utterly  in  defiance  of  the  facta 
of  ancient  history ;  it  bids  defiance  to  the  earliest  tradi- 
tions everywhere  current  among  the  most  widely  separa- 
ted nations ;  and  it  is  absolutely  disproved  and  refuted, 


MAN  ONE   FAMILY.  495 

by  the  results  of  the  most  extensive  and  thorough  re- 
searches of  philologists,  who,  almost  to  a  man,  even  though 
contrary  to  their  previous  bias,  and  their  hostility  to  reve- 
lation, are  compelled  to  admit,  all  languages  show  proof 
of  derivation  from  one  primitive  tongue,  and  all  mankind 
must  have  sprung  from  one  original  stock. 

Against  all  these  facts,  the  doctrine  of  diverse  races  is 
in  direct  opposition.  It  is  also  in  contradiction  of  revela- 
tion :  it  is  at  variance  with  the  facts  of  the  Mosaic  history, 
with  the  general  spirit  and  teachings  of  the  prophets,  and 
it  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  whole  plan  of  salvation 
through  a  Eedeemer,  connected  by  birth  with  the  human 
race,  who  was  the  second  Adam,  sent  to  recover  and  to 
save  the  degraded  and  imperilled  progeny  of  the  Adam 
who  sinned  in  Eden,  and  none  others.  The  doctrine  of 
the  one  origin  of  all  the  "races  of  man,  as  descendants  of 
Adam,  and  as  such  contemplated  in  the  salvation  of  the 
gospel,  is  alone  consistent  with  the  whole  Bible,  with  all 
the  plain  facts  of  science  fairly  examined  side  by  side, 
with  the  evidences  of  a  nature  common  to  all  the  races  of 
men,  and  infinitely  above  that  of  the  lower  animals. 
This  doctrine  alone  comports  with  the  facts  of  ancient  his- 
tory, the  traditions  preserved  among  all  nations  pointing 
to  a  common  origin,  with  the  early  civilization,  vestiges 
of  which  are  found  in  all  the  countries  of  the  earth ;  and 
this  doctrine  of  unity  is  sustained  by  evidence  that 
amounts  to  demonstration,  by  the  clearest  deductions  of 
the  ablest  philologists  of  all  countries  and  of  all  creeds. 

In  view  of  this  array  of  corroborative  evidence  for  the 
original  unity  of  the  races  of  men,  the  difficulties  and 
objections  that  rest  on  physiological  grounds,  may  well 
be  set  aside  as  of  little  weight :  and  these,  in  all  proba- 


496  MAN  ONE  FAMILY. 

bility,  derivre  their  force  from  the  limitations  of  our  knowl- 
edge, and  will  gradually  disappear,  as  human  knowledge 
extends.  If  any  position  may  be  deemed  certain,  and 
demonstrated,  it  would  seem  that  the  Original  Unity  of 
all  the  varieties  of  the  human  family  may  be  so  deemed : 
and  thus,  in  this,  another,  and  an  important  point,  like 
as  in  relation  to  the  Creation  and  the  Deluge,  the  accu- 
racy of  Moses  as  a  historian,*  and  his  authority  as  an  in- 
spired penman,  are  signally  illustrated  from  history,  and 
corroborated  by  science  itself.  Well  then,  might  the 
learned  Adrian  Balbi  affirm,  "  No  monument,  either  his- 
torical or  astronomical,  has  yet  been  able  to  prove  the 
books  of  Moses  false :  but  with  them  on  the  contrary, 
agree,  in  the  most  remarkable  manner,  the  results  ob- 
tained by  the  most  learned  philologues,  and  the  profound- 
est  geometricians." 

William  Von  Humboldt  tells  us,  "The  comparative 
study  of  languages  shows  us  that  races  now  separated  by 
vast  tracts  of  land  are  allied  together,  and  have  migrated 
from  one  common  pnmUive  seaL"  He  tells  us  that  even 
now,  one  long  chain  of  kindred  tongues,  the  Indo-Ger- 
manic  languages,  extends  from  the  Ganges,  to  the  Iberian 
extremity  of  Europe,  and  from  Sicily  to  the  North  Cape ; 
yea  that  a  period  there  was  when  the  lohole  family  of  man- 
kind wasj  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word^  to  be  regarded  as 
one  living  whole.     (Cosmos,  vol.  ii.  p.  111.) 

In  exact  agreement  with  these  deductions  of  the  pro- 
foundest  philological  research,  is  the  teaching  of  Moses, 

♦  The  Chevalier  Bnnsen  says,  with  great  point  and  beauty,  "  History 
was  bom  in  that  night,  when  Moses,  with  the  law  of  God,  moral  and  spir- 
itual, in  his  heart,  led  the  people  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt."  (Egypt's  Place, 
Ac.,  vol.  L  p.  28.) 


MAN   ONE  FAMILY.  497 

who  says,  that  while  the  descendants  of  Noah  dwelt  on 
the  plains  of  Shinar,  planning  the  tower  of  Babel,  "  the 
whole  earth  was  of  one  language,  and  of  one  speech.", 
The  whole  population  of  the  globe  then  constituted  but 
one  family,  all  men  are  therefore  still  of  one  hhod. 


POSTSCRIPT. 


In  the  note  pp.  458,  459,  the  author  stated  his  inability  to  find  in  Lep- 
sius's  Plates  illustrative  of  the  sixth  Dynasty,  the  name  Kush,  the  desig- 
nation for  negro,  stated  by  Mr.  Gliddon  in  the  London  Ethnological  Jour- 
nal, to  have  been  found  at  Sukkara  by  the  Baron  Lepsius.  It  is  but  right 
to  add  here,  that  in  an  interview  with  Mr,  Gliddon  to-day,  April  19th, 
1852,  he  was  asked  to  point  to  the  inscription  in  Lepsius's  "  Denkmahler," 
above  referred  to.  Mr.  G.  replied,  the  statement  was  made  on  the  au- 
thority of  a  verbal  communication  from  Lepsius,  whom  he  met  at  Berlin, 
but  that  the  inscription  is  7wt  as  yet  published  in  Lepsius's  great  work. 


CONCLUDING  KEMAKKS. 

The  plan  proposed  for  this  volume  is  now  completed. 
After  a  brief  outline  of  the  course  of  reasoning  employed, 
to  show  the  necessity  for  a  revelation  from  God,  the 
reader  will  find  here  presented  in  one  connected  series, 
the  chief  arguments  in  favor  of  the  divine  authority  of 
the  Bible,  as  also  the  most  plausible  of  the  objections 
against  it. 

The  character  of  Moses  as  a  philosopher,  and  a  states- 
man is  briefly  delineated ;  the  evidence  for  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Pentateuch,  and  also  for  that  of  the  book  of 
Genesis  more  particularly,  as  the  production  of  Moses, 
and  as  divinely  inspired,  is  here  detailed,  in  opposition 
to  the  views  of  German  ueologists. 

The  Mosaic  account  of  creation  in  six  days  is  ex- 
amined, and  the  most  important  objections  raised  against 
that  account  are  discussed.  Then  follows  a  review  of 
the  popular  objections  urged  against  the  Mosaic  story  of 
Cain,  as  though  it  involved  the  idea  of  a  populousness 
of  our  globe  at  that  early  period,  such  as  could  not  have 
been  existing,  had  not  other  races  of  men,  besides  that 
of  Adam,  been  then  already  created. 

The  mention  made  in  Genesis,  of  giants,  and  the  lon- 
gevity ascribed  in  that  book  to  the  antediluvian  patri- 
archs, next  receive  a  passing  attention. 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  499 

The  subject  of  the  great  deluge  in  the  days  of  Noah  is 
discussed  more  at  large.  That  the  deluge  was  strictly 
universal^  is  shown  to  be  plainly  taught  in  the  Mosaic 
narrative ;  and  the  truth  of  that  narrative  is  vindicated 
in  a  careful,  and  as  the  writer  believes,  in  a  candid  ex- 
amination of  all  the  chief  difficulties  that  have  been  sug- 
gested on  various  grounds,  against  that  universality.  Its 
truth  is  further  illustrated  by  the  several  traditions  found 
among  all  nations,  in  countries  the  most  widely  separated, 
of  a  great  flood  in  the  times  of  their  earliest  ancestors; 
traditions  very  distinct,  universally  prevailing,  and  all 
harmonizing  to  a  degree  quite  irreconcilable  with  any 
other  view,  than  that  of  the  actual  occurrence  of  a  mighty 
inundation,  that  covered  the  entire  earth,  just  as  Moses 
relates. 

The  subject  of  Death  among  the  creatures  of  God  is 
also  considered ;  and  the  question  whether  death  in  the 
irrational  part  of  the  animal  creation  be,  or  be  not,  the 
result  of  the  sin  of  Adam,  is  freely  examined.* 

The  last  Lecture  is  devoted  to  a  subject  of  intense  and 
daily  increasing  interest,  the  Unity  of  the  Human  Spe- 
cies, and  the  origin  of  the  varieties  of  race,  and  of  the 
diversified  languages  now  spoken  by  the  population  of 
our  globe. 

It  is  not  without  great  diffidence  that  the  author,  ut- 
terly obscure  as  he  knows  himself  to  be,  has  ventured  to 

*  The  author  is  gratified  to  notice  that  in  the  work  of  Dr.  Hitchcock, 
"  The  Religion  of  Geology,"  published  since  these  lectures  were  delivered 
from  the  pulpit,  and  also  in  a  discourse  of  Dr.  Buckland  on  this  subject, 
which  has  very  recently  come  into  his  hands,  the  same  views,  substan- 
tially, in  regard  to*  death,  as  those  herein  unfolded,  are  maintained  by 
those  justly  distinguished  writers. 


500  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

deal  so  freely  witli  the  language  and  the  arguments  of 
one  whose  name  is  familiar  to  the  scientific  and  the 
learned  in  every  civilized  country  under  heaven. 

But  even  Agassiz  may  err ;  even  he  may  sometimes 
reason  inconclusively.  That  he  has  done  so  in  the  the- 
ory presented  in  the  Christian  Examiner  for  July,  1850, 
to  account  for  the  origin  of  man,  and  the  diversity  of - 
human  races,  the  writer  of  these  pages  does,  after  a  very 
careful  examination  of  the  subject,  and  of  the  piece  of 
Professor  Agassiz,  firmly  believe ;  and  he  believes  also 
that  in  his  Lecture  on  that  subject,  he  has  shown  it. 

The  view  taken  in  that  Lecture,  of  the  influences  con- 
sequent on  God's  coming  down  among  men  at  Babel,  to 
confound  men's  language,  and  to  effect  the  dispersion  of 
mankind  over  the  whole  earth,  as  laying  the  foundation 
by  a  constitutional  law  of  change  then  and  there  im- 
pressed on  man's  physical  nature,  for  the  speedy  ap- 
pearance, in  the  several  branches  of  the  one  Noachian 
family,  of  all  the  diversity  of  complexion  and  of  struc- 
ture, that  would  be  adapted  to  the  regions  of  their  future 
abode  respectively ;  a  diversity  such  as  we  now  find  to 
be  existing,  and  such  as  abundant  evidence  shows  has 
existed  from  a  'period  not  greatly  posterior  to  the  era  of 
the  deluge,  is  believed  to  be  simple,  natural,  and  indeed 
necessarily  involved  in  the  narrative  itself  as  given  in 
Genesis,  when  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case  are  con- 
sidered. 

It  is  entirely  consistent  with  all  known  fects,  and  with 
the  whole  tenor  of  scriptural  history,  and  of  scriptural 
doctrines,  as  well  as  accordant  to  widely  spread  tradition ; 
while  it  has  this  further  recommendation,  that  it  does 
violence  to  no  one  sentence,  and  to  no  one  word  of  holy 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  601 

writ,  and  it  enables  us  to  obviate  every  chronological, 
and  every  arcbieological  objection  against  this  important 
doctrine,  that  Mankind  are  One  Family,  all  made  of  one 
blood ;  all  brethren  by  descent  from  one  primitive  pair, 
and  all  contemplated  in  the  salvation  provided  in  the 
second  Adam,  as  being  all  involved  in  the  evil  entailed 
by  the  sin  of  the  first  Adam  in  Eden. 

In  regard  to  the  Bible  alone  of  all  books,  it  can  be  said 
that  the  more  thoroughly  its  statements  are  sifted,  the 
more  consistent,  rational,  and  trustworthy  are  they  found. 
Every  assault  made  upon  it,  however  its  friends  may 
thereby  falter  for  a  brief  season,  issues  eventually  in 
brightening  the  evidence  of  its  truth,  and  strengthening 
the  demonstration  that  it  is  from  God. 

Had  Moses  written  his  own  conjectures  merely,  or  the 
result  of  his  own  wide-spread  research,  long  ere  this  his 
statements  would  have  been  convicted  of  error.  But,  in 
fact,  the  extension  of  human  knowledge,  though  it  gives 
birth  every  now  and  then  to  fresh  difficulties,  and  to  new 
objections  against  the  Mosaic  narrative,  very  soon  fur- 
nishes also  the  means  to  remove  those  difficulties ;  and 
thus,  from  every  department  of  human  inquiry,  from 
every  branch  of  knowledge,  evidence  springs  up,  and 
light  is  derived,  converging  all  to  one  point,  the  illustra- 
tion of  the  truth  and  accuracy  of  this  wonderful  docu- 
ment, the  Mosaic  record ;  producing  all  together,  a  com- 
plete demonstration  of  its  divine  origin.  For,  assuredly, 
no  human  mind,  however  gigantic. its  powers,  could  pos- 
sibly have  accumulated  the  knowledge,  varied,  accurate, 
and  embracing  subjects  the  most  recondite,  which  the 
books  of  Moses  embody.  None  but  the  unerring  Mind 
could  have  guided  Moses,  in  that  early  age  especially,  in 


502  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

the  composition  of  this  wonderful  book,  and  more  par- 
ticularly the  book  of  Genesis. 

The  author  frankly  admits  that,  at  times,  especially 
during  the  earlier  course  of  his  inquiries,  the  plausible 
character  of  some  of  the  difficulties  he  had  to  consider, 
and  the  confidence  with  which  some  of  these  objections 
are  presented,  staggered  him.  Again  and  again  he 
paused,  in  almost  breathless  solicitude.  But,  a  recollec- 
tion of  the  overwhelming  proofs  for  the  divine  origin 
of  these  books  reassured  him,  and  cheered  him  on  in 
his  work.  Diligent  research,  accompanied  by  patient 
thought,  cleared  away  each  rising  difficulty,  presented  be- 
fore his  mind  fresh  evidence  of  the  perfect  truth,  the 
wonderful  accuracy,  and  the  entire  trustworthiness  of 
these  venerable  documents,  in  each  particular,  even  those 
that  had  been  most  confidently  assailed. 

Each  step  he  advanced  tended  to  increase  his  confi- 
dence in  the  books  of  Moses,  and  his  reverence  for  their 
teachings ;  and  the  feeling  has  been  growing  upon  him, 
and  deepening  every  day.  The  Bible  is  an  awful  hook  I 
It  is  immeasurably  removed  above  the  noblest  of  all 
merely  human  productions.  It  is  the  embodiment  of 
heavenly  wisdom.  It  is  the  recorded  words  of  the  Infi- 
nite Mind  I 

The  author  thinks  he  has  reason  to  bless  God  thai 
he  has  been  driven  by  circumstances  to  that  course  of 
reading  and  reflection,  the  results  of  which  are  here  laid 
before  the  reader. 

The  Supplementary  Lecture  given  in  the  Appendix, 
on  the  Literary  Excellence  of  the  Bible,  seems  connected, 
almost  as  a  corollary,  with  the  argument  presented  in  the 
body  of  the  work.     It  was  originally  delivered  January, 


CONCLUDING  KEMARKS.  503 

1844,  before  the  citizens  of  Mobile,  as  one  of  a  series  of 
Lectures  from  different  citizens.  The  next  were  the  Two 
Lectures  of  Dr.  J.  C.  Nott,  referred  to  in  this  volume. 

In  the  course  of  this  work,  frequent  allusion  is  made  to 
the  astounding  claims  now  confidently  advanced,  for  an 
antiquity  to  the  monuments  of  Egypt,  and  to  the  earlier 
dynasties  of  her  Pharaohs,  which,  if  established,  would 
effectually  overthrow  the  received  chronology  of  the 
Bible,  and  would  show  to  a  demonstration,  that  (as  Bun- 
sen  has  expressed  it)  the  Hebrew  records  furnish  no  cer- 
tain chronology  older  than  the  age  of  Solomon.* 

A  few  remarks  on  that  subject  may  not  inappropriately 
close  this  volume. 

Let  me  here  premise,  that  should  it  even  be  admitted 
that  the  original  Hebrew  numbers  are  lost  from  the  text 
of  all  copies  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  and  that  the  Sep- 
tuagint  chronology  itself  is  erroneous,  as  some  seem  now 
ready  to  admit,  so  that  it  should  at  length  be  received 
as  an  axiom,  that  chronology  forms  no  part  of  revela- 
tion, (a  position  we  are  by  no  means  prepared  to  accede 
to,)  still,  even  then,  the  evidence  for  the  divine  origin 
of  the  Bible  would  remain  untouched ;  its  doctrines,  its 
precepts,  and  its  promises  would  retain  their  beauty  and 
their  appropriateness. 

But  this  claim  for  high  Egyptian  antiquity,  carries  im- 
probability on  the  face  of  it,  as  many  considerations  unite 
to  show.  Bunsen  assures  us  that  monuments  now  exist 
in  Egypt  of  an  antiquity  higher  than  5,000  years ;:[:  and 

*  See  his  Egypt's  Place,  &c.,  vol.  i.  Preface,  p.  vii. ;  and  also  vol.  i.  pp. 
161,  163. 
:|:  Egypt's  Place,  Introd.  p.  xxviii. 


504  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

that  the  lists  of  Manetho  make  the  duration  of  the  whole 
Egyptian  empire,  from  Menes  to  Alexander,  to  have 
lasted  somewhere  between  4,900  and  5,400  years."*^ 

Mons.  Ampere  tells  usf  that  Lepsius  declares  monu- 
ments are  now  existing  in  Egypt,  the  date  of  whose 
erection  is  2,500  years  before  Abraham ;  and  Mr.  Glid- 
don  stated,  in  1848,  that  the  discoveries  of  Lepsius  up 
to  that  time,  left  the  date  of  Menes,  the  first  mortal  king 
of  Egypt,  still  oscillating  between  the  36th  and  58th  cen- 
tury B.c4  This  would  show  that  Egypt  must  have  been 
populous  and  highly  civilized  long  before  the  flood,  and 
even  some  centuries  before  Usher's  date  of  the  creation 
of  Adam. 

Lepsius§  himself,  towards  the  close  of  his  great  work, 
*'Die  Chronologic  der  Egypter,"  part  ii.  p.  499,  gives 
B.C.  8893  as  the  date  of  the  accession  of  Menes,  and  the 
commencement  of  the  Egyptian  empire,  which  ended 
with  Nectanebo,  B.C.  340.  But  the  geological  formation 
of  Egypt  discountenances,  if  it  does  not  effectually  refute 
this  lofty  claim,  and  shows  that  the  very  soil  of  Egypt, 
the  ground  on  which  those  monuments  stand,  and  where 
the  Pharaohs  reigned,  has  not  existed  so  long. 

The  lands  of  Egypt  are  a  deposit  of  the  Nile ;  and 
the  Delta  certainly  has  not  presented  even  the  first  muddy 
formation  of  a  morass  much  more  than  about  5,000  years 
since.  II 

*  Egypt's  Place,  &c,,  vol.  i,  p.  83. 

t  See  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  (Paris)  for  Dec.  1847,  p.  1035 ;  and  see 
Lecture  III.  of  this  work,  p.  131. 

X  See  Gliddon's  Otia  Egyptiaca,  pp.  25,  39. 

^  Die  Chronologie  der  Egypter,  von  Dr.  R.  Lepsius,  pp.  498,  499.  Ber- 
lin, 1849. 

II  See  I'Egypte  Pharaonique,  par  Mons.  D.  M.  J.  Henri,  torn.  i.  p.  88. 
Paris,  1846. 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  505 

A  part  of  the  lid  of  the  cofl&n  of  Mycerinus,  the  fourth 
king  of  the  fourth  dynasty,  the  eighteenth  of  the  Egyptian 
kings,  and  the  builder  of  the  third  pyramid,*  (this  wood 
is  now  in  the  British  Museum  in  London,)  who  is  repre- 
sented as  reigning  somewhere  about  B.C.  3500,  was  found 
in  the  third  of  the  pyramids  of  Gizeh.  Ampere  dates 
this  coffin  at  B.C.  4000.  (Eevue  des  Deux  Mondes,  p. 
677,  Kov.  1846.)  Now  it  is  utterly  incredible  that  wood, 
and  that  the  several  papyrus  rolls,  should  have  existed 
so  many  thousands  of  years.  The  world  can  show  no 
approximation  to  a  parallel  of  such  durability  in  mate- 
rials so  frail  and  perishable. 

A  similar  antiquity  has  been  claimed  for  the  records 
of  China,  of  India,  and  of  Chaldaea.  All  these  claims 
have  been  demonstrated  to  be  groundless.  No  authentic 
records,  in  any  of  those  countries,  can  be  assigned  to  a 
date  much  beyond  B.C.  ISOO.f 

Further,  this  high  Egyptian  antiquity  is  made  out  by 
assuming  that  the  lists  of  Manetho,  Herodotus,  Eratos- 
thenes, &c.,  are  substantially  correct,  and  that  the  names 
found  in  the  tombs  and  palaces  of  Egypt,  surrounded  by 
the  cartouche,  or  royal  ring,  when  similar  to  names  given 
in  the  lists,  are  the  very  same,  and  designate  the  same 
persons.  It  also  further  assumes,  that  these  kings  and 
these  dynasties  were  successive,  and  not  reigning,  many 
of  them,  contemporaneously. 

*  See  Vyse's  Pyramids,  vol,  ii.  pp.  94,  95,  and  plate  ;  also  Lepsius, 
Auswahl,  taf.  vii. 

t  See  Lepsius,  Chronologie,  &c.,  pp.  4,  9, 13,  24 ;  also  Bunsen,  Egypt's 
Place,  &c.,  vol.  i.  pp.  241,  242 ;  Cosmos,  vol.  1.  pp.  114,  115,  note. 

Ampere  gives  b.c.  4000  as  the  age  of  the  coffin  of  Mycerinus.    (See 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Nov.  1846,  p.  677.) 

22 


606  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  the  idea  which  is  necessarily  in- 
volved in  the  mode  of  computation  employed  to  reach 
this  high  antiquity,  viz.,  that  from  the  very  earliest  of 
these  monarchs,  the  whole  of  Egypt  had  been  reduced 
under  the  sway  of  one  sovereign,  is  exceedingly  improb- 
able. It  is  unparalleled  in  history.  All  countries  of 
which  we  have  any  accounts,  were  first  occupied  by  a 
variety  of  distinct  tribes  or  petty  principalities,  often 
waging  relentless  war  on  one  another,  like  the  Indian 
tribes  of  our  own  country  ;  like  the  several  parts  of  Brit- 
ain in  time  of  the  Saxon  heptarchy.  It  was  long  before 
one  tribe  mastered  the  others  around  it,  and  before  one 
man  ruled  over  a  large  kingdom  formed  by  the  union 
of  all  these  petty  tribes  scattered  in  distinct  bands  over 
an  extensive  region.  Such  was,  in  all  probability,  the 
case  in  Egypt,  in  the  times  of  her  earlier  Pharaohs,  and 
even  until  within  a  short  period  of  the  temporary  so- 
journ of  Abraham  in  that  land  I 

We  know,  also,  that  extensive  mutilations  on  the  monu- 
ments were  made  even  by  the  Pharaohs  themselves.  Such 
mutilations  are  seen  at  Medinet  Habou,  (see  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes,  p.  1028,  Dec.  1847  ;)  at  Luxor,  (id.  p.  1010, 
Dec.  1849  ;)  and  at  other  places,  (id.  p.  93,  Jan.  1349.)  If, 
from  a  petty  vanity,  the  Pharaohs  thus  mutilated  the 
monuments  of  their  predecessors — the  sacred  records  of 
the  empire,  what  confidence  can  we  place  in  the  truth 
of  the  records  yet  left  ?  Why  may  not  the  priests,  and 
other  persons  in  power,  have  altered  names  in  these 
monuments  also,  inserting  the  names  of  ancient  and  pos- 
sibly of  fabulous  monarchs,  to  feed  their  national  vanity, 
and  gratify  their  morbid  desire  of  a  reputation  for  match- 
less antiquity  to  their  country  ? 


CONCLUDING  EEMARKS.  507 

It  is  well  known,  also,  that  great  diversity  prevails 
among  even  the  ablest  Egyptologists,  as  to  the  true  read- 
ing of  many  even  of  the  names  of  ancient  Egyptian 
kings.  Instances  of  this  are  to  be  found  in  every  part 
of  their  writings.  (See  Ampere,  in  Kevue  des  Deux 
Mondes,  Nov.  1846,  pp.  687,  688.) 

Besides  all  this,  the  sources  whence  the  lists  of  Egyp- 
tian kings  and  dynasties  have  been  drawn,  are  liable  to 
suspicion. 

Of  Egyptian  history  we  know  absolutely  nothing  be- 
yond what  can  be  gathered  from  the  Greek  writers, 
Herodotus  and  Diodorus,  and  the  lists  of  Manetho,  as 
compared  with  existing  monuments  and  with  some  few 
papyrus  rolls. 

But,  Herodotus  furnishes  no  regular  series  of  dates. 
Diodorus  reckons  according  to  generations;  but  in  his 
series  many  chasms  occur,  to  measure  which  no  clue  is 
left  us.  In  the  numbers  given  by  Manetho,  numerous 
errors  have  found  place. 

On  the  monuments  again,  no  regular  series  of  dates 
appears.  Certain  tables,  or  series  of  royal  names  have 
been  found,  as  at  Karnak,  at  Abydos,  the  royal  papyrus 
of  Turin,  &c. :  but  all  attempts  at  a  complete  arrangement 
of  these  royal  names,  and  their  identification  with  the 
names  on  the  lists  given  by  Greek  writers,  are  attended 
with  perplexing  difficulties.  The  learned  differ  widely 
on  these  points.  Thus,  Bunsen  would  assign  to  the  series 
of  provincial  kings  before  Menes,  several  names  that  Lep- 
sius  places  in  the  tenth  dynasty,  (Eg.  Place,  p.  51,)  a  dif- 
ference of  considerably  more  than  one  thousand  years. 

Speaking  of  the  papyrus  lists,  Bunsen  remarks,  "  Here 
we  find  no  chronology,  any  more  than  upon  the  Steloe," 


508  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

(p.  84.)  Again,  "  Here  we  have  still  no  history,  in  the 
proper  sense,"  (id.)  In  another  place  Bunsen  remarks,  (p. 
24,)  "As  the  Egyptians  possessed  no  work  on  history 
among  their  sacred  books,  so  neither  had  they  any  con- 
nected chronology."  Again,  "The  sacred  books  contained 
no  history^  but  much  that  was  historical:  they  gave  no 
chronology,  but  constituted  its  basis  and  touchstone.  If 
they  are  ancient,  (adds  Bunsen,)  and  extend  beyond  the 
period  of  the  Hyksos  to  the  empire  of  Menes,  the  founda- 
tion of  Egyptian  Chronology,  and  History,  is  not  entirely 
lost  for  the  modern  investigator,"  (p.  26.) 

True,  if  they  are  so  ancient :  but  who  shall  prove  this? 
Who  can  render  it  even  probable  ? 

Bunsen  tells  us,  (p.  131,)  that  according  to  Manetho, 
Egyptian  history  is  divided  into  three  great  periods  :  the 
Old  Empire,  the  Middle  Empire,  and  the  New  Empire. 
The  Old  Empire  commenced  with  Menes,  and  ended  with 
the  third  king  of  the  thirteenth  dynasty.  From  that 
time  commences  the  Middle  Empire,  the  period  of  the 
rule  of  Foreigners,  called  Hyksos,  or  Shepherd  Kings. 
Their  occupancy  of  the  throne  was  the  commencement  of 
the  Middle  Empire.  Their  expulsion  was  the  commence- 
ment of  the  New  Empire,  which  opens  with  the  eighteenth 
dynasty,  and  extends  to  the  thirtieth  dynasty,  about 
thirteen  hundred  years. 

The  Middle  Empire,  or  dominion  of  the  Shepherd 
Kings,  occupied,  according  to  Bunsen,  about  nine  hun- 
dred years.     (See  Eg.  Place,  vol.  i.  pp.  131,  138.) 

Now  the  chief  monuments  yet  standing  in  Egypt  are 
the  works  of  the  eighteenth  and  following  dynasties. 

The  Shepherd  Kings  are  said  to  have  extirpated  the 
monuments  of  the  Old  Empire ;  and  the  native  sovereigns, 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  609 

who  regained  the  dominion  in  the  eighteenth  dynasty, 
destroyed  the  monuments  of  the  Hyksos  period. 

What  means,  then,  could  the  Egyptians  of  the  New- 
Empire  possess,  and  especially  those  in  the  yet  later  times 
of  the  Ptolemies,  for  making  out  a  history  of  the  Old  Em- 
pire, and  for  furnishing  lists  of  the  kings  of  that  Old  Em- 
pire, after  an  interval  of  a  thousand  years  had  elapsed, 
(and  in  the  times  of  the  Ptolemies,  an  interval  of  more 
than  2,300  years,)  during  which  one  thousand  years  a 
race  had  ruled  in  Egypt  hostile  to  the  old  *Pharaohs,  and 
determined  on  eradicating  every  monument  commemora- 
tive of  the  acts  and  the  very  existence  of  those  old 
Pharaohs  ? 

Now  the  sacred  books  of  the  Egyptians  contain  no  his- 
tory, properly  speaking,  and  certainly  no  chronology. 

The  monuments  show  no  connected  chronology :  they 
furnish,  here  and  there,  annals  of  some  particular  reigns, 
and  some  few  lists  of  royal  names ;  but  very  little  that  is 
properly  connected.  For  the  making  out  of  a  regular 
series  of  chronological  dates,  reliance  is  placed  on  a  com- 
parison of  the  contents  of  these  several  lists  on  the 
monuments,  and  in  certain  papyri,  with  the  lists  given 
by  Greek  writers,  chiefly  Herodotus  and  Manetho. 

But  it  is  certain  that  neither  Herodotus,  nor  Diodorus, 
nor  any  Greek  historian,  nor  Manetho,  himself  an  Egyp- 
tian priest,  in  the  comparatively  modern  time  of  the 
Ptolemies,  after  the  last  of  the  Egyptian  monarchs  of  the 
New  Empire  had  passed  away,  could  have  had  access  to 
any  sources  of  information  other  than  what  the  Egyptian 
hierogrammatists  themselves  possessed.  Of  Egypt's  old 
Pharaonic  dynasties,  these  Greek  writers  could  learn  no 
more  than  what  the  Egyptians,  their  contemporaries,  after 


510  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

even  the  New  Empire  was  no  more,  could  tell  them.  But 
of  those  old  Pharaohs,  the  Egyptians  themselves  of  that 
age,  had  but  little  more  than  the  vestiges  of  tradition. 

Where,  then,  is  the  possibility  of  finding  authentic 
records  of  the  old  Pharaohs,  the  very  last  of  whom  was 
separated,  according  to  the  showing  of  these  Greek  writers 
themselves,  by  an  interval  of  upwards  of  two  thousand 
years  from  their  time,  and  of  even  this  interval,  the  first 
nine  hundred  years  had  left  no  monuments  ?  The  facts 
speak  for  themselves. 

Accordingly  we  find  Bunsen  himself  admitting  that  a 
comparison  of  the  lists  of  Eratosthenes  and  Manetho 
"can  leave  no  reasonable  doubt  that  both  are  derived 
from  the  same/oimtotVi  head  of  tradition*  (Vol.  i.  p.  126  : 
see  also  p.  14.) 

But  a  tradition  respecting  historical  names  and  dates, 
running  back  from  two  to  three  thousand  years,  is  a  very 
slender  foundation  on  which  to  rest  a  chronology,  that  is 
to  overturn  the  chronology  given  in  the  books  of  Moses ! 

In  another  passage  Bunsen  very  distinctly  and  very 
truly  remarks,  "The  question  of  any  value  attaching  to 
either  the  Egyptian  or  the  Greek  traditions,  relative  to 
the  earlier  periods  of  the  Egyptian  history,  turns  upon 
the  point,"  what  dependence  can  be  placed  on  the  knowl- 
edge which  the  Egyptians  of  the  New  Empire  did  them- 
selves possess,  of  their  most  ancient  chronology  ?  (p.  6.) 
That  is  to  say,  in  other  words,  whether  the  Egyptians  of 

*  The  genuine  Egyptian  traditions  concerning  the  mythological  period, 
embraced  'hnyn'ads  of  years"  (p.  14,) 

Bunsen  admits  also  "  The  Egyptians,  like  all  other  nations  possessing 
very  ancient  records,  t^  Jeics  only  excepted,  have  from  very  early  times, 
exaggerated  the  dates  of  their  history,"  (vol.  i.  p.  6.) 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  511 

the  New  Empire,  which  commenced  a  little  before  the 
time  of  Moses,  had  received  any  genuine  historical  knowl- 
edge of  their  primitive  ages,  from  the  desolation  conse- 
quent on  the  Hyksos  rule  ?  (p.  4.) 

Bunsen  and  Lepsius  maintain  that  such  knowledge  had 
been  preserved ;  that  "  the  ancient  king  mentioned  in  the 
Book  of  the  Dead,"  belonged  to  the  fourth  dynasty,  and 
that,  though  the  section  in  that  book,  which  mentions  him, 
may  be  of  a  much  later  date  than  his  own  life-time,  yet 
we  possess  "  authentic  contemporary  monuments^  not  only 
of  him,  but  of  the  Pharaohs,  his  ancestors,  in  nearly  un- 
interrupted succession,  during  the  previous  two  centuries 
and  a  half,  back,  almost  to  the  beginning  of  the  third 
dynasty,  and  all  written  in  the  same  character  as  that 
papyrus  exhibits,"  (p.  81.) 

This  is  certainly  an  important  point  if  it  can  be  clearly 
established.  The  inscriptions,  &c.  on  these  so  called 
contemporary  monuments  are  presented  in  the  several  puV 
lications  of  Lepsius,  especially  in  his  great  work,  the 
"Denkmaler  aus  Egypten,  &c."  now  in  progress. 

But  to  me,  I  confess,  the  evidence  for  the  continuous 
connection,  and  the  remote  antiquity  of  these  several 
monuments,  running  back  to  the  commencement  of  the 
third  dynasty,  is  not  made  clearly  apparent. 

In  relation  to  the  Greek  authors*  furnishing  lists  of 

*  Herodotus  is  supposed  to  have  visited  Egypt  about  b.c.  450  years, 
t.  e.  just  about  100  years  before  the  close  of  the  new  empire,  full  2200 
years  after  the  end  of  the  old  empire :  (see  Bunsen,  p.  109.  Lepsius,  p. 
498.)  Bunsen  says  the  system  of  Herodotus,  and  the  Egyptian  compu- 
tations differ  by  about  10,000  years,    (p.  109.) 

*•  Manetho,  the  author  of  the  famous  lists  of  dynasties,  so  much  relied 
on,  was  a  priest  of  Sabennytus,  residing  at  the  court  of  the  first  Ptolemy, 
and  also  under  Ptolemy,  Philadelphus  II.  He  was  long  after  the  very 
last  of  the  Pharaohs  even  of  the  new  empire."    (Bunsen,  p.  58.) 


512  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

the  dynasties,  on  which  reliance  is  placed  for  the  means 
of  identifying  the  kings  whose  names  are  found  on  the 
monuments,  and  so  assigning  to  them  their  several  chron- 
ological positions,  especially  those  of  the  first  seventeen 
dynasties,  or  the  Old  Empire,  the  learned  and  judicious 
Heeren  thus  expresses  himself: — 

'"  Neither  Herodotus  nor  Diodorus  distinguishes  these 
dynasties.  One  merely  observes,  that  according  to  the 
lists  given  him  by  the  priests,  (probably  those  of  Mem- 
phis,) the  first  king,  Menes,  had  330  successors,  of  which 
they  knew  only  the  names,  as  no  monuments  were  left. 
It  is  only  in  setting  out  from  Moeris  and  Sesostris,  that 
he  gives  the  names  of  some  few  kings,  but  certainly  not 
a  consecutive  list,  although  the  priests  might  have  given 
it  to  him  as  such.  Diodorus  mentions  some  other  kings, 
but  he  does  not  determine  the  number.  It  is,  therefore, 
impossible,  to  found  upon  the  dynasties  of  these  two 
authors,  any  exact  chronology. 

"  But  Manetho,  in  the  work  of  which  we  have  only  a 
few  incomplete  extracts,  classes  in  chronological  order, 
the  thirty-one  dynasties  preceding  the  conquest  of  Alex- 
ander. Are  these  dynasties,  then,  all  successive,  or 
partly  contemporaneous  ?  Is  it  possible  that  Egypt  was, 
at  oncej  formed  into  a  large  empire  ? 

"  Rosellini  contends  for  successive  reigns,  chiefly  on 
the  authority  of  Manetho. 

^'  But  suppose  Manetho  really  thought  so,  how  did  he 
reach  this  conclusion?  The  Egyptian  priests,  anxious 
to  give  to  their  state  a  high  antiquity,  had  already  cited 
to  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  catalogues  of  kings  certainly 
not  following  each  other  in  chronological  order.  Might 
not  the  same  thing  have  been  done  in  the  lists  given  to 


CONCLUDING  KEMARKS.  618 

Manetho?"  (Historical  Eesearches,  Egypt,  vol.  i.  pp. 
98-110.) 

"  Among  the  Hindoos,"  says  the  same  writer,  (see  his 
India,  p.  164,)  "  kings  are  mentioned  on  their  lists,  as  great 
sovereigns,  of  the  very  period  during  which  the  epics 
prove  there  were  several  small  states."  So  it  might  have 
been  among  the  Egyptians,  and  so  in  all  probability  it 
was.  Bunsen  himself,  while  he  denies  that  contemporary 
sovereigns  are  found  on  the  lists  of  the  ISTew  Empire,  i.  e. 
from  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  does  also 
stoutly  maintain  that  in  the  Old  Empire  contemporary 
kings  are  given,  especially  in  the  twelfth  dynasty,  and  in. 
the  fourth.  "  We  may  venture  to  assume,  from  the  in- 
vestigations of  the  monuments  of  the  Old  Empire,  that 
in  it  joint  reigns  occur^  and  especially  in  the  twelfth  dy- 
nasty, one  of  those  preserved  in  the  papyrus,  i.  e.  the 
royal  papyrus  of  Turin."  Again,  *' In  this  oldest  record 
of  Egyptian  chronology,  we  have  a  method  directly  op- 
posed to  the  system  of  a  chronological  canon.  We  may 
call  it  the  dynastic,  its  aim  being  to  register  every  sove- 
reign^ whether  contemporaneous  or  successive." 

"  The  sum  total  of  the  reigns  recorded  in  such  or  such 
a  dynasty,  will  be  considerably  greater  than  the  duration 
of  the  dynasty,"  (vol.  i.  pp.  65,  56. 

Again,  p.  126,  *'  We  find  Manetho  conforming  to  the 
same  Egyptian  method  for  the  old  empire,  and  that, 
namely,  of  inserting  in  the  list  of  reigns  the  name  of 
every  king  of  the  same  sovereign  line,  co-regents  inclusive^ 
in  the  form  of  one  continuous  order  of  succession.''^ 

On  page  132  Bunsen  remarks,  "  In  the  Middle  Em- 
pire, the  Theban  and  Xoite  kings  were  contemporaneous  with 

22* 


514  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

the  Shepherds,  and  ivith  each  other J^  This  period  com- 
prises 900  years. 

These  concessions  of  the  Chevalier  Bunsen  prepare  us 
to  receive  with  greater  confidence  the  statements  of  Mr. 
R.  S.  Poole,  in  his  Hora3  Egyptiacae,  claiming  to  adduce 
proof  from  the  monuments  themselves,  that  several  of 
the  dynasties  which  have  been  generally  represented  as 
successive,  were  actually  contemporaneous,  as  e.  g.  the 
twelfth  and  the  fifth;  and  that  thus,  the  monumental 
history  of  Egypt  covers  not  a  period  of  duration  be- 
yond what  may  be  readily  reconciled  with  the  Mosaic 
chronology  as  given  in  the  Septuagint.  A  conclusion, 
to  the  accuracy  of  which.  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson  has  af- 
fixed the  sanction  of  his  great  name  in  these  matters. 

Bunsen  places  the  accession  of  Menes  the  first  mortal 
king  of  Egypt,  at  about  B.C.  3648.  Dr.  Pritchard  places 
it  at  B.C.  2214.  Wilkinson  at  B.C.  2320.  Lepsius  places 
Menes  at  a  period  still  more  remote  than  does  Bunsen, 
viz.  B.C.  3893,  as  the  year  of  the  accession  of  Menes;  and 
the  empire  of  the  Pharaohs  ended,  according  to  Lepsius, 
with  Nectanebo,  B.C.  340.* 

Manetho,  as  corrected  by  a  comparison  with  Syncellus, 
would  make  Menes,  B.C.  2720,  i.  e.  about  440  years  after 
the  deluge,  reckoned  according  to  the  Septuagint  chro- 
nology, which  gives  6586  as  the  interval  between  the 
creation  and  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  places  the  flood  at 
B.C.  3154.  Looking,  then,  at  the  many  sources  of  error 
in  these  ancient  authors,  at  the  uncertainty  of  the 
sources  whence  they  had  to  draw  their  information, 
and  at  the  difficulties  attending  the  subject  itself,  it  seems 

*  Die  Chronologie  der  Egypter,  &c.  von  Dr.  R.  Lepsius,  pp.  498,  499. 
Berlin,  1849. 


CONCLUDING  KEMARKS.  615 

abundantly  plain,  that  (as  Dr.  Eadie  has  expressed  it  in 
his  admirable  compend  of  Egyptian  history,  given  in  the 
*'  Early  Oriental  History,"  published  in  the  Encyclopaedia 
Metropolitana,  pp.  76,  77,)  an  approximation  to  the  truth^'^ 
on  all  such  abstruse  points,  is  all  that  can  be  obtained. 

The  strenuous  defenders  of  Usher's  dates  are  plainly 
at  fault,  in  view  of  the  facts  furnished  by  the  monu- 
ments :  while  the  advocates  of  the  extreme  antiquity  con- 
tended for  by  Bunsen  and  Lepsius,  are  equally  opposed 
by  the  facts  and  reasonings  published  by  Mr.  Poole,  and 
by  the  conceded  contemporaneousness  of  many  of  the 
kings  of  the  early  dynasties,  if  not  also  of  whole  dynas- 
ties, given  in  the  Egyptian  authorities. 

Between  extremes,  the  middle  ground  is  alone  safe. 
Discoveries  in  Egyptian  archaeology  are  not  yet  ended, 
and  discovery  has  been  so  rapid  of  late  years,  that  we 
may  hope  to  be,  ere  long,  in  possession  of  data,  on  which 
to  form  a  final  and  satisfactory  decision  on  the  whole 
question  of  Egyptian,  and  perhaps  also,  of  Scriptural 
chronology.*  Comparing  together  the  statements  and 
the  conclusions  of  the  different  explorers  in  this  field,  it 
seems  plain,  that  thus  far  at  least,  no  dates  are  positively 
established  for  the  antiquity  of  Egypt,  which  forbid  us  to 
believe  that,  though  one  of  the  oldest,  if  not  the  very 
oldest  nation  on  earth,  there  was,  nevertheless,  ample 
time,  in  the  interval  between  the  flood  and  the  first  king 

*  The  author  has  made  but  passing  allusions  in  this  work  to  the  dis- 
coveries of  Layard  and  his  co-laborers  among  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  &c. , 
to  the  investigations  of  Major  Rawlinson  in  the  cuneiform  writing ;  or  to 
Mr.  Foster's  work  on  the  Rock  inscriptions  around  Mount  Sinai  in 
Arabia,  because  these  subjects  are  not  directly  connected  with  the  points 
here  examined.  They  relate  to  times  less  remote,  and  are  reserved,  with 
other  points  of  importance  and  of  interest,  for  a  future  volume. 


516  CONCLUDING  REMARKS. 

of  Egypt,  to  allow  the  increase  of  population  sufficient 
for  the  establishment  of  such  a  nation  as  the  empire  of 
the  pyramid-building  Pharaohs  must  have  been. 

For  all  that  Egypt  yet  has  shown,  and  for  all  that  the 
antiquity-loving  Egyptologists  have  yet  proved,  we  can 
hold  to  the  Mosaic  record,  its  chronology  (as  found  in 
the  Septuagint,)  included. 

"This  ancient  record,"  says  a  sensible  and  candid 
writer,  (Dr.  Eadie,  see  his  Introductory  to  the  Early 
Oriental  History,  p.  i.  Lond.  1852,)  "  carries  us  back  to 
a  dim  and  remote  era.  It  has  not  the  aspect  of  a  legend 
which  has  risen,  no  one  can  tell  how,  and  received  am- 
plification and  adornment  in  the  course  of  ages. 

"  It  is  neither  a  confused  nor  an  unintelligible  state- 
ment.    Its  sobriety  vouches  for  its  accuracy. 

'•  As  its  genealogy  is  free  from  extravagance,  and  as  it 
presents  facts  without  the  music  and  fiction  of  poetry,  it 
must  not  be  confounded  with  Grecian  and  Oriental  myth, 
which  is  so  shadowy,  contradictory,  and  baseless,  a  re- 
gion of  grotesque  and  cloudy  phantoms." 
-  In  this  venerable  record,  there  is  nothing  that  lifts 
itself  above  vulgar  humanity,  nothing  that  might  not, 
nothing  that  did  not  happen  in  those  distant  and  primi- 
tive epochs. 

No  other  account  is  more  likely,  or  presents  fewer 
difficulties. 


NOTE. 


The  following  noble  testimony  to  the  sacred  character  of  the  Mosaic 
history  of  the  Creation,  as  contained  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  is 
extracted  from  an  article  in  the  Theological  and  Literary  Journal  for 
April,  1852,  from  the  pen  of  the  editor,  David  N.  Lord,  pp.  543,  544,  and 
may  appropriately  be  introduced  here : — 

After  showing  that  the  creation  in  six  days  is  re-asserted  in  Exod,  xx. 
11 — where  it  is  given  as  a  reason  for  the  observance  of  the  weekly  sab- 
bath—and that  it  was  reiterated  by  God  himself,  on  giving  to  Moses  the 
law  written  on  tables  of  stone,  Exod,  xxxi.  16,  17,  the  writer  thus  pro- 
ceeds : — "  If  that  announcement  from  Sinai,  and  ratification  of  the  history 
of  the  creation  given  in  Genesis,  is  held  to  be  a  fiction,  it  must  of  neces- 
sity lead  to  the  rejection  of  the  whole  Pentateuch  as  a  fabrication.  If, 
without  any  conceivable  motive,  and  against  every  consideration  that 
would  govern  a  wise  and  holy  being,  a  misrepresentation  so  stupendous, 
and  so  sure  to  be  defeated  and  exposed,  is  incorporated  in  the  Decalogue 
itself,  both  as  it  is  represented  to  have  been  pronounced  by  the  Almighty 
Lawgiver,  and  written  by  him  on  the  tables  of  stone,  what  certainty  can 
be  felt  that  any  of  the  other  recitals  or  declarations  are  not  equally  false  1 
If  no  trust  is  to  be  placed  in  the  awful  attestations  which  God  is  repre- 
sented to  have  given  to  that  part  of  the  law,  no  other  attestations  which 
he  is  said  to  have  given  the  other  enactments  and  institutions  can  be  en- 
titled to  reliance.  Neither  visible  theophanies,  audible  voices,  miracles, 
nor  prophecies,  which  are  declared  to  have  attended  the  communication  of 
commands,  and  to  have  shown  that  they  were  from  him,  can  yield  them 
any  corroboration.  Indeed,  it  would  be  absolutely  incredible  that  the 
whole  was  not,  in  an  equal  measure,  a  fabrication. 

"  But  the  rejection  of  the  Pentateuch  as  false  in  its  claims  to  a  divine 
origin  and  authority,  would  necessarily  draw  after  it  the  rejection  of  all 
the  other  books  of  the  Old  Testament ;  for  they  all  recognize  the  truth 


518  NOTE. 

of  the  Pentateuch,  and  proceed  on  its  histories,  enactments  and  institu- 
tions as  verities.  They  exhibit  the  Israelitish  nation  as  sustaining  the 
relation  to  God  which  the  Pentateuch  represents ;  and  the  priesthood,  the 
sacrifices,  the  covenants,  the  promises  and  the  whole  system  of  laws,  as 
instituted  by  God,  as  that  record  relates.  If  they  are  not  his  work,  it  is 
impossible  that  the  other  should  be.  But  their  rejection  draws  after  it 
also,  as  necessarily,  the  rejection  of  the  New  Testament ;  for  the  latter 
ratifies,  in  the  fullest  manner,  all  the  great  historical  statements,  the  en- 
actments and  the  religious  institutions  of  the  former,  and  it  is  on  them 
that  the  work  of  redemption  which  it  reveals  is  founded.  If  the  Mosaic 
history  of  the  creation  and  fall,  the  destruction  of  the  ancient  world,  the 
adoption  of  the  Israelites  as  a  peculiar  people,  their  deliverance  from 
Egypt,  the  proclamation  of  the  Law  at  Sinai,  the  institution  of  the  priest- 
hood, sacrifices  and  rites  of  worship,  and  the  interpositions,  commands 
and  revelations  that  are  recorded  by  the  prophets  that  followed,  are  not 
from  God,  it  is  impossible  that  the  New  Testament  can  be,  which  every- 
where recognizes  them  as  realities,  and  is  dependent  on  them  for  its  truth 
and  propriety.  The  whole  Bible,  as  a  revelation,  thus  stands  or  falls  with 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  This  intimate  connection  with  other  parts 
of  the  Word  of  God,  is  in  a  great  degree  peculiar  to  that  record  of  the 
creation.  The  histories,  narratives,  and  even  the  enactments  of  many 
other  chapters  might  be  supposed  to  bo  supposititious,  without  necessarily 
destroying  the  credibility  of  the  inspiration  of  the  remainder.  But  the 
subversion  of  this,  from  its  incorporation  in  the  Law  of  Sinai,  necessarily 
carries  with  it  the  subversion  of  all  that  follows." 

To  the  truth  of  all  this,  the  writer  of  these  pages  yields  his  hearty 
assent ;  and  he  deems  these  views  entirely  consistent  with  the  position 
taken  in  this  work ;  while  they  present  in  a  strong  light  the  reasons  which 
have  weighed  with  him  in  the  production  of  this  volume. 

MoBiLK,  April  16)  1858. 


APPENDIX. 


THE  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  MODERN  LITERATURE 
TO  THE  BIBLE.* 

Wherever  man  is,  there  is  character,  intellectual  and  moral 
both  ;  and  the  doings  of  the  man  develop  that  character.  In  the 
actions  of  his  life,  in  the  tenor  of  his  confidential  discourse,  and  in 
his  epistolary  correspondence,  the  individual  traces  an  impress  of 
himself. 

But  communities^  as  well  as  individuals,  may  be  said  to  have 
and  to  exhibit  a  character  of  their  own.  The  acts  of  the  govern- 
ment, the  enactments  of  the  legislature,  the  proceedings  of  public 
bodies,  the  prevailing  customs,  and  the  tolerated  vices,  all  furnish 
indication  of  public  character  :  while  in  the  current  literature^  the 
manifestation  of  that  character  is  more  decisive  still.  National 
character  is  often  as  distinctly  marked  in  national  literature,  as  the 
character  of  the  individual  is  marked  in  letters  to  his  intimate 
friends.  In  German  literature,  in  French,  in  English,  in  Italian, 
and  in  Spanish,  there  is  a  distinct  character,  intellectual  and  moral, 
appertaining  to  each  one,  and  peculiar  to  itself.  La  Henriade 
never  could  have  been  written  by  an  Englishman,  nor  Othello  by 
a  Frenchman,  nor  Goethe's  Faust,  nor  the  Orlando  Furioso  of 
Ariosto,  by  either  of  them. 

*  Delivered  before  the  citizens  of  Mobile,  in  the  Lecture-room  of  the 
Government-street  Church,  Mobile,  Tuesday,  December  26,  1843. 


520  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  MODERN  LITERATURE 

In  like  manner,  each  great  age  of  the  world,  and  almost  each 
successive  generation  of  men,  has  exhibited  its  own  peculiar  lite- 
rary character.  The  writings  of  King  David  or  of  Isaiah,  the  pro- 
ductions of  Homer  or  of  Herodotus,  could  not  possibly  be  con- 
founded with  the  literature  of  the  Augustan  age,  nor  could  the 
productions  of  Chrysostom  or  of  Augustine  be  mistaken  for  writ- 
ings of  the  age  of  Leo  X.,  any  more  than  writings  such  as  those 
of  Luther,  of  Molancthon,  or  of  Erasmus,  could  be  palmed  on  lite- 
rary men  as  the  product  of  the  nineteenth  centurj'.  Constitutional 
temperament,  education,  the  company  he  keeps,  the  sentiments  he 
hears,  the  books  he  reads,  the  scenes  he  witnesses,  and  the  objects 
he  pursues,  all  combine  to  influence  the  opinions,  and  modify  the 
character  of  the  individual.  In  like  manner,  the  constitution  of 
society,  the  prevailing  forms  of  government,  political  changes,  and 
antecedent  revolutions,  all  combine  to  modify  national  character, 
and  to  determine  the  character  of  the  age  itself,  and  consequently 
to  aflect  the  character  of  its  literature  also. 

Among  the  causes  thus  operating  on  the  human  mind,  the  views 
entertained  of  religion  cannot  be  the  least  influential ;  and,  conse- 
quently, the  extensive  dissemination  of  writings,  such  as  those  of 
which  the  Bible  is  made  up,  must  have  told,  and  told  powerfully, 
upon  the  sentiments  and  the  writings,  at  least,  if  not  also  upon  the 
conduct  of  men.  To  some  few  among  ancient  writers,  such  as 
Plato  and  Seneca,  the  Scriptures  were  probably  not  wholly  un- 
known. But  it  is  in  modern  times  only,  that  these  sacred  writings 
have  been  made  extensively  known :  it  Is,  therefore,  in  modern 
literature,  chiefly,  th.it  we  can  look  for  the  influence  of  revealed 
truth ;  and  hence,  I  have  proposed  to  treat  of  The  Indebtedness  of 
Modern  Literature  to  the  Bible. 

First,  then.  Wherever  present,  the  Bible  has  fostered  the  spirit 
of  sound  learning.  From  times  of  the  remotest  antiquity,  it  would 
appear  that  learning  and  religion  have  been  closely  c<innected  to- 
gether. Not  to  enlarge  on  the  fact  that  even  among  the  ancient 
heathen,  the  priesthood  were  usually  their  learned  men,  (just  as 


TO  THE  BIBLE.  521 

though  religion,  even  in  its  basest  counterfeits,  professing,  as  it 
does,  to  deal  with  the  interests  of  the  inner  spirit  of  man,  must 
necessarily  cultivate  the  intellect,  as  a  part  of  her  own  peculiar 
province,)  it  is  obvious  that  the  chief  agents  employed  of  heaven  to 
receive  and  to  promulgate  revealed  truth,  were  the  friends  and  cul- 
tivators of  learning.  Moses,  the  Jewish  lawgiver,  "  was  learned  in 
all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians^''  and  was,  unquestionably,  the 
most  distinguished  man  of  his  age.  The  author  of  the  book  of  Job 
was  evidently  a  man  of  highly  cultivated  mind.  The  royal  Solo- 
mon, and  among  the  prophets,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Daniel,  were 
all  accomphshed  scholare :  while,  even  so  early  as  the  time  of  Sam- 
uel, seminaries  of  learning,  called  "  schools  of  the  prophets,^''  were 
maintained,  from  among  the  students  in  which  were  selected  those 
on  whom  God  sent  the  spirit  of  prophecy. 

The  first  teachers  of  the  Christian  faith  were  trained  for  yeara 
near  the  person,  and  under  the  instructions  of  their  divine  Master, 
so  as  to  be  thoroughly  versed  in  ethics  and  theology ;  and  then 
they  were  supernaturally  endowed,  at  once,  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  languages  necessary  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  their  mis- 
sion— a  knowledge  which,  otherwise,  the  tedious  labor  of  years 
could  alone  have  secured  to  them.  Paul,  from  whose  pen  we 
have  more  than  from  that  of  any  other  of  the  New  Testament 
writers,  was  a  man,  not  only  of  unusual  mental  vigor,  but  also  of 
varied  reading,  and  of  extensive,  if  not  profound  erudition.  But, 
besides  this  learning  found  in  some  of  the  sacred  writers,  the  very 
nature  of  the  Bible  is  such  as  to  call  for  attention  to  learning,  at 
least  in  those  who  study  in  order  to  expound  it.  A  divine  revela- 
tion must  be  communicated  in  some  particular  language,  or  lan- 
guages, which,  to  men  of  other  nations,  must  be  foreign  and  unin- 
telligible without  study.  The  original  tongues  of  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testament  have  now,  for  many  ages,  been  dead  languages. 
A  knowledge  of  these  languages  can,  therefore,  be  acquired  only 
by  careful  study. 

In  addition  to  all  this,  the  Bible  is,  in  some  parts,  of  antiquity 


522  INDEBTEDNESS   OF   MODERN  LITERATURE 

80  remote,  it  embodies  allusions  to  times,  and  places,  and  persons, 
so  very  ancient,  and  so  entirely  removed  out  of  tlie  range  of  ordi- 
nary research,  that,  in  order  to  understand  it  fully,  not  only  must 
various  languages  be  studied,  but  a  wide  range  of  investigation 
must  be  made  in  history,  chronology,  geography,  and  sundry  other 
branches  of  knowledge.  Accordingly  it  has  been  found,  in  every 
age,  that  where  the  Bible  was,  there  learning  flourished.  Among 
the  most  assiduous  cultivators  of  learning,  in  their  day,  were  the 
advocates  of  revealed  truth  in  the  first  four  centuries  of  the  Chris- 
tian era.  During  the  long  night  of  intellectual  darkness,  in  what 
are  called  the  middle  ages,  learning  was  confined,  almost  exclu- 
sively, to  the  cells  of  the  monasteries.  But  in  those  cells  the  Bible 
was,  and  was  studied,  while  on  the  great  mass  of  men,  from  whom 
the  Bible  was  withheld,  the  deep  darkness  of  utter  ignorance  rested. 
So  long  as  the  church  taught  the  traditions  of  men,  keeping  the 
Bible  hid  from  public  view,  learning  languished,  and  was  found 
only  among  the  clergy:  but  when  the  Reformation  insisted  on  the 
exclusive  authority  of  revelation  in  mattere  of  faith  and  practice, 
and  proclaimed  the  Bible  as  the  book  for  the  people,  learning  re- 
vived, the  study  of  ancient  languages  was  entered  upon  with  ar- 
dor, other  branches  of  learning  received  increased  attention,  nu- 
merous versions  of  the  Bible  in  modem  tongues  were  made,  and 
published  for  the  use  of  the  people.  Commentaries  and  exposi- 
tory works  of  various  kinds  were  produced  and  published,  and  the 
art  of  criticism  was  once  more  called  into  operation,  and  greatly 
improved.  So  true  it  is,  as  the  learned  Blackstone  remarks,  when 
advocating  the  necessity  for  a  liberal  education  at  the  university, 
as  a  preparation  for  the  study  of  law,  "  The  sciences  are  of  a  social 
disposition,  and  flourish  best  in  the  neighborhood  of  each  other; 
nor  is  there  any  branch  of  learning  but  may  be  helped  and  im- 
proved, by  assistance  drawn  from  other  arts."  Blackstone's  Com- 
mentaries, book  i,  §  1,  vol.  i.  p.  19.  And  we  may  add,  there  is 
no  one  branch  of  learning  which  can  be  thoroughly  mastered, 
without  attention  to  many  other  departments  of  knowledge :  yea, 


TO  THE  BIBLE.  523 

a  love  for  one  learned  pursuit  will  inevitably  impel  to  the  study  of 
kindred  and  illustrative  branches  of  knowledge.  Thus  it  was  ac- 
tually found  that,  wherever  the  Bible  was,  there  learning  took  up 
her  abode,  and  multiplied  her  votaries,  and  achieved  her  triumphs. 
But  learning  is  the  foundation  of  literature.  In  fostering  learning, 
then,  the  Bible  has  rendered  essential  service  to  the  cause  of  liter- 
ature. It  has  called  it  into  existence,  and  mainly  determined  its 
character. 

For,  secondly,  Some  of  the  profoundest  works  of  modem  litera- 
ture have  been  called  forth  hy  the  Bible.  Wherever  the  Bible  is 
known,  and  duly  prized,  it  awakens  a  spirit  of  learned  research : 
ancient  languages,  the  classics  of  Greece  and  Rome,  as  well  as  of 
Judea,  become  objects  of  diligent  study ;  and  learned  lexicons,  and 
laboriously  compiled  grammars,  and  critical  editions  of  the  ancient 
classics,  (those  of  Greece,  especially,)  are  put  forth,  as  a  means  of 
elucidating  the  sacred  text,  or  of  fitting  the  student  of  revealed 
truth,  rightly  to  investigate,  properly  to  appreciate,  and  correctly 
to  expound  it.  For  the  same  purpose,  also,  the  vast  stores  of 
ancient  history  must  be  unlocked,  to  furnish  the  world  with  such 
works  as  Prideaux's  Connection  of  Sacred  and  Profane  History, 
the  Annals  of  Archbishop  Usher,  and  the  works  of  Lightfoote,  of 
Home,  of  Lardner,  and  Calmet's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible.  An  im- 
mense amount  of  learning  has  been  employed  in  framing  commen- 
taries on  the  Bible,  and  expositions  of  its  several  books.  Pole's 
Synopsis  of  Critical  Expositions,  Blayney's  Jeremiah,  Lowth's 
Isaiah,  Newton  on  the  Prophecies,  Ainsworth  on  the  Pentateuch, 
Michaelis  on  the  Old  and  on  the  New  Testament,  Campbell's 
Notes  on  the  Gospels,  Rosenmiiller's  Scholia,  and  the  Commenta- 
ries of  Kuinoel,  are  all  works  of  great  learning,  and  they  discover 
vast  research. 

Besides  this,  in  reply  to  the  objection  of  infidels,  many  able 
works  have  been  written  in  defence  of  the  Bible,  from  Watson's 
Apology,  Leland's  View  of  Deistical  Writei*s,  and  Paley's  Evi- 
dences, down  to  the  Evidences  as  presented  by  Bishop  M'llvaine 


524  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  MODERN  LITERATURE 

of  this  country,  and  by  Bishop  Wilson  of  Calcutta.  For  vigorous 
thought,  sound  reasoning,  lucid  arrangement,  and  beautiful  simpli- 
city of  style,  many  of  the  productions  of  this  class  stand  unrivalled 
in  our  language.  The  works  of  Paley,  especially,  are  models  of 
composition,  and  of  felicitous  reasoning. 

In  other  departments,  the  Bible  has  called  forth  the  works  of 
Bochart,  of  Reland,  and  Lowth  on  Hebrew  Poetry,  all  distin- 
guished for  profound  erudition ;  while,  in  our  own  language,  (to 
say  nothing  of  Milton,  of  Young,  and  of  Pollok,)  such  writers  as 
Jeremy  Taylor,  Home,  Hooker,  Barrow,  Sherlock,  Bishop  Butler, 
and  a  host  of  others  (constituting  the  very  flower  of  our  English 
literature)  were  induced  to  write  solely  from  reverence  for  the 
Bible.  In  English  literature,  the  Bible  has  proved  the  most  liberal 
of  all  patrons. 

But,  thirdly,  The  science  of  Jurisprudence  is  also  largely  in- 
debted to  tlie  Bible.  This  every  sound  lawyer  will  readily  allow. 
In  the  books  of  Moses,  written  in  the  very  remotest  age  of  the 
world,  and  when  mankind  were  everywhere  little  better  than  bar- 
barians, we  have  presented  in  brief  a  body  of  laws  which,  to  this 
day,  is  admitted  by  those  most  competent  to  judge,  to  be  the  very 
best  code  ever  given  to  mankind  ;  the  model  on  which  all  subse- 
quent legislators  have  proceeded  in  framing  their  statutes. 

"  As  God,  (says  Blackstone,)  when  he  created  matter,  and  en- 
dued it  with  a  principle  of  mobility,  estabUshed  certain  rules  for 
the  direction  of  that  motion,  so,  when  he  created  man,  and  endued 
him  with  free  will,  to  conduct  himself  in  all  parts  of  life,  he  laid 
down  certain  immutable  laws  of  nature,  whereby  that  free  will  is, 
in  some  degree,  regulated  and  restrained,  and  gave  him  also  the 
feculty  of  reason,  to  discover  the  purport  of  those  laws.  These  are 
the  eternal  and  immutable  laws  of  good  and  evil,  to  which  God 
himself  always  conforms,  and  which,  as  applicable  to  man,  reason 
can  discover ;  and  which  are  so  admirably  ordered  of  God,  as  al- 
ways to  promote  the  substantial  and  permanent  happiness  of  men ; 
such,  e.  g.  as  that  we  should  Uve  honorably,  hurt  nobody,  and  ren- 


• 


TO  THE  BIBLE.  625 

der  to  eveiy  one  his  due.  Indeed,  to  these  three  precepts  Justin- 
ian has  reduced  the  whole  doctrine  of  law.  This  is  the  Law  of 
Nature.  But  further,  in  compassion  to  the  frailty,  the  imperfec- 
tion, and  the  blindness  of  human  reason,  God  hath  been  pleased, 
at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners,  to  discover  and  enforce  his 
laws  by  an  immediate  and  direct  revelation.  The  doctrines  thus 
delivered  we  call  the  revealed  or  divine  Law,  and  they  are  to  be 
found  only  in  the  holy  Scriptures.  These  precepts,  when  revealed, 
are  found,  upon  comparison,  to  be  really  a  part  of  the  original  law 
of  nature,  as  they  tend,  in  all  their  consequences,  to  man's  felicity : 
but,  though  agreeable  to  right  reason,  reason,  unaided  and  alone, 
could  not  make  them  known.  Upon  these  two  foundations,  the* 
law  of  nature,  and  the  law  of  revelation,  depend  all  human  laws : 
that  is  to  say,  no  human  laws  should  contradict  these."* 

*  I  think  myself  happy  in  being  able  to  introduce  the  following  noble 
testimony  to  the  value  of  the  Bible,  in  legal  science  and  civil  government, 
from  the  pen  of  that  able  jurist  and  distinguished  man,  Chief  Justice 
Hornblower  of  New  Jersey,  found  in  his  Charge  to  the  Grand  Jury  of 
Essex  County,  N.  J,,  Jan.  7, 1843.  "  We  have  in  the  Bible  a  wiser  and  a 
holier  rule  of  action  than  the  wisdom  of  man  ever  conceived,  and  in  fewer 
words  than  all  the  learning  of  the  schools  ever  compressed  the  wisest  of 
their  maxims  :  '  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye 
even  so  to  them !'  This  is  emphatically  the  golden  rule.  It  is  universal 
in  its  application,  and  eternal  in  its  principles.  It  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  our  jurisprudence,  legal  and  equitable,  civil  and  criminal ;  and  if  acted 
on,  this  would  do  more  to  purify  society,  and  elevate  man  to  his  true  dig- 
nity as  a  rational  and  immortal  being,  than  all  the  learning  of  the  schools, 
and  the  vain  philosophy  of  the  world. 

"  It  is  a  short  and  simple  lesson  that  all  may  learn,  from  the  lisping 
child  of  civilization  to  the  gray-headed  and  untutored  savage  of  the  wil- 
derness— a  lesson  which,  if  all  would  inculcate  and  practise,  would  smooth 
down  the  asperities  of  life,  mitigate  the  sorrows  incident  to  humanity, 
sweeten  the  springs  of  domestic  enjoyment,  strengthen  and  beautify  the 
bonds  of  the  social  compact,  dispense  with  the  officers  of  justice,  demolish 
our  prisons,  and  pull  down  the  last  scaffold  that  should  ever  be  erected 
for  the  execution  of  the  convict. 

"But  instead  of  this,  we  are  constantly  told  of  the  dignity  and  perfecti- 


626  INDEBTEDNESS   OF   MODERN   LITERATURE 

Thus  full  and  explicit  is  the  great  Commentator  on  Law,  in  re- 
gard to  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Bible  in  legal  science  :  and  in 
the  writings  of  the  ablest  jurists  everywhere  are  found,  expressed 
or  implied,  similar  concessions  to  the  fundamental  importance  of 
the  Bible  in  the  science  of  jurisprudence.  So  close,  indeed,  is  the 
connection  between  biblical  and  legal  knowledge,  that  "  during 
the  middle  ages,  (as  Selden  remarks,)  the  clergy,  as  they  then  en- 
grossed every  other  branch  of  learning,  so  they  were  particularly 
remarkable  for  their  proficiency  in  the  study  of  the  law  :  it  was 
then  taught  by  them  in  the  monasteries,  in  the  universities,  and  in 
the  families  of  the  principal  nobility."     "  Nullus  clericus,  nisi  cau- 

bility  of  human  nature,  the  noble  qualities  of  the  mind,  and  the  elevating 
influence  of  education  in  the  illimitable  fields  of  art  and  science  upon  the 
happiness  of  man ;  and  each  lecturer,  in  his  turn,  has  just  discovered  some 
new  principle  in  nature,  or  above  nature,  which  is  to  rectify  all  the  ills  of 
life,  &c. 

"  When  these  giants  in  human  intellect  can  tell  me  whence  Moses  de- 
rived his  science  in  legislation,  without  admitting  the  supernatural  and 
divine  authority  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  I  shall  begin  to  listen  with 
more  reverence  to  the  teachers  of  human  perfectibility.  In  that  short  and 
comprehensive  code,  we  find  given  to  us  a  perfect  rule  of  action,  covering 
the  whole  ground  of  man's  existence :  a  rule,  not  only  prescribing  our 
duty  to  God  and  man,  in  our  external  behavior,  but  reaching  to  the  se- 
cret thoughts  and  feelings  of  our  hearts  in  every  possible  condition  of 
life,  and  in  all  our  relations  to  our  Maker  and  our  fellow-beings.  The 
wisdom  of  ages,  the  learning  and  philosophy  of  the  schools,  have  never 
discovered  a  single  defect  in  that  code.  Not  a  virtue  which  is  not  there 
inculcated.  Not  a  vice,  in  its  most  doubtful  and  shadowy  form,  which  is 
not  there  prohibited.  Whence,  then,  I  ask,  did  the  great  Jewish  law- 
giver derive  his  spirit  of  legislation"?  If  that  code  was  written  by  the  fin- 
ger of  the  Almighty,  let  us  bow  to  it  with  holy  reverence,  and  seek  no  bet- 
ter rule  of  life,  nor  any  wiser  principles  of  action.  But  if  they  emanated 
only  from  the  capacious  mind,  and  were  dictated  by  the  wisdom  of  Moses 
— then  Moses  was  a  wiser,  a  more  learned  man,  than  any  of  our  new 
teachers  ;  and  I  had  rather  be  under  his  jurisdiction  and  keep  his  com- 
mandments, than  learn  new  rules  of  civil  polity  and  social  intercourse 
from  the  most  learaed  and  wise  of  the  present  day  " 


TO  THE   BIBLE.  627 

sidicus,"  (every  priest  is  a  lawyer,)  is  the  character  given  of  them 
soon  after  the  conquest.  The  judges,  therefore,  were  usually  cre- 
ated out  of  the  sacred  order  ;  as  was  the  case  also  among  the  Nor- 
mans :  and  all  the  inferior  officers  in  courts  of  law  were  supplied 
by  the  lower  clergy,  which  has  caused  their  successors  to  be  de- 
nominated CLERKS  (clerici)  to  this  day. 

But  again,  fourthly.  The  Bible  has  greatly  contributed  to  pro- 
mote the  general  diffusion  of  intelligence  among  the  mass  of  the 
people.  Various  considerations  combine  to  assure  us  that  such  is 
the  fact.  The  testimony  of  all  competent  and  impartial  observers 
declares,  that  among  the  mass  of  the  people  in  those  countries  yet 
destitute  of  a  knowledge  of  revelation,  gross  ignorance  prevails.. 
The  little  learning  they  do  possess  is  confined  to  a  very  small  class, 
the  privileged  few  :  the  body  of  the  population  are,  in  point  of 
intellect,  but  little  elevated  above  the  brutes  around  them.  Yea, 
even  in  nations  nominally  Christian,  the  difference  in  the  amount 
of  intelligence  among  the  common  people,  where  the  Bible  is  open 
to  all,  and  among  those  where  it  is  not  in  their  hands,  is  almost 
incredibly  great.  Go  among  the  poorer  population  of  Cathohc 
Ireland,  of  Italy,  of  Spain,  or  even  of  France,  and  you  will  find  the 
grossest  ignorance  almost  universally  prevalent.  They  are  taught 
to  delegate  the  care  of  their  future  interests  to  their  priests,  and 
with  the  delegation,  they  seem  to  abandon  almost  the  power  of 
thought.  In  such  communities  you  will  find  many  minds  naturally 
shrewd,  vigorous,  and  active,  but  shrunk  and  paralyzed,  for  want 
of  having  their  powers  called  into  proper  action.  Relying  on 
mere  outward  rites,  truth,  in  all  her  majesty,  her  beauty,  and  her 
far-reaching  influences,  seems  hid  fi'om  their  view,  and  lost  even  to 

their  wishes Now,  with  such  a  people,  compare  the  same 

class  of  population  as  found  in  Scotland,  or  in  New  England, 
where  the  Bible  is,  emphatically,  "  the  people's  book  ;"  where  it  is 
found  in  every  house,  in  the  rich  man's  library,  and  on  the  cot- 
tager's table,  where  it  is  read  in  every  school-house,  and  where  its 
sacred  precepts  are  reverently  listened  to  around  the  cheerful  hearth 


628  INDEBTEDNESS   OF   MODERN  LITERATURE 

of  the  day-laborer,  and  you  will  find  a  great  difference  in  the 
amount  of  popular  intelligence.  This  the  Scottish  poet,  Burns, 
well  understood  ;  and. accordingly  he  describes  his  cottage  laborer 
closing  the  pleasant  family  intercoui-se  on  Saturday  night : 

"  The  cheerful  supper  done,  wi'  serious  face, 
They  round  the  ingle  form  a  circle  wide; 
The  sire  turns  o'er,  wi'  patriarchal  grace, 
The  big  ha'  Bible,  ance  his  father's  pride: 
His  bonnet  reverently  is  laid  aside. 
His  lyart  haffets  wearing  thin  and  bare : 
Those  strains  that  once  did  sweet  in  Zion  glide, 
He  wales  a  portion  with  judicious  care ; 
And,  '  L^t  us  worship  God,^  he  says,  with  solemn  air. 

"  The  priest-like  father  reads  the  sacred  page, 
How  Abram  was  the  friend  of  God  on  high. 
Or  Moses  bade  eternal  warfare  wage 
With  Amalek's  ungracious  progeny : 
Or  how  the  royal  bard  did  groaning  lie 
Beneath  the  stroke  of  Heaven's  avenging  ire : 
Or,  Job's  pathetic  plaint,  and  wailing  cry, 
Or  rapt  Isaiah's  wild  seraphic  fire. 
Or  other  holy  seers,  that  tun'd  the  sacred  lyre. 

"  Perhaps  the  Christian  volume  is  the  theme — 
How  guiltless  blood  for  guilty  man  was  shed : 
How  He  who  bore  in  heaven  the  second  name. 
Had  not  on  earth  whereon  to  lay  his  head : 
How  his  first  followers  and  servants  sped — 
The  precepts  sage  they  wrote  to  many  a  land : 
How  he,  who  lone  in  Palmos  banished, 
Saw  in  the  sun  a  mighty  angel  stand. 
And  heard  great  Babylon's  doom  pronounced  by  Heaven's  command. 

"  Then  kneeling  down,  to  Heaven's  eternal  King 
The  saint,  the  father,  and  the  husband  prays. 
*  *  *  *  » 

From  scenes  like  these,  old  Scotia's  grandeur  springs, 
That  makes  her  loved  at  home,  revered  abroad." 


TO  THE  BIBLE.  529 

Yes, — in  such  a  country  it  is  that  you  find  a  thinking,  reasoning 
community,  given  to  reflection,  and  comparatively  free  from  super- 
stition. Nor  is  the  cause  of  this  difference  unintelligible  or  obscure. 
By  the  amazing  truths  which  it  presents,  the  Bible  is  directly  cal- 
culated to  awaken  thought,  intense  thought ;  and  it  furnishes  abun- 
dant materials  to  feed  and  to  maintain  thought.  Destitute  of  reve- 
lation, man's  thoughts  are  confined  to  this  world,  its  pleasures,  its 
cares,  and  its  interests :  and  what  can  the  mere  notion  of  a  local 
deity,  like  the  heathen  idols,  or  of  a  patron  saint  to  look  to  for 
protection,  do  to  elevate  the  thoughts  and  stimulate  the  intellect  ? 

How  meagre  and  uninfluential  were  the  notions  of  superior  be- 
mgs,  entertained  by  the  most  polished  of  ancient  pagan  philoso- 
phers. But,  open  the  page  of  inspiration  before  man's  eye,  and 
what  a  host  of  glorious  truths  and  ennobling  ideas  is  at  once  pre- 
sented to  his  mind !  The  nature  and  attributes  of  the  Eternal 
Spirit,  his  boundless  power,  his  spotless  holiness,  his  inflexible  jus- 
tice, man's  responsibility,  and,  above  all,  the  stupendous  discove- 
ries of  divine  mercy  in  the  plan  of  redemption,  are  truths  blazing 
on  every  page  of  the  Bible, — truths  admirably  adapted  to  arrest 
attention,  to  awaken  thought,  profound,  intense,  long-continued 
thought,  and  by  their  influence,  to  touch  the  springs  of  human 
feeling,  expand  the  very  dimensions  of  the  mind  itself,  and  new 
model  the  entire  character.  These  and  similar  truths  (presented 
only  in  the  Bible)  cannot  be  uninfluential  on  the  mind  that  per- 
ceives and  contemplates  them.  Just  so  far  as  the  Bible  is  known 
and  studied  in  a  community,  are  these  truths  known  ;  and  so  far 
must  their  influence  be  felt.  But  if  an  ennobling  influence  be  thus 
diff"used  over  the  public  mind,  the  effects  of  that  influence  cannot 
fail  to  show  itself  on  the  literature,  which  is  at  once  the  offspring 
and  the  gauge  of  popular  intellect. 

But,  fifthly.  The  Bible  has  elevated  the  tone  of  morals  in  hu- 
man society,  and  has  awakened  a  gentler  spirit  in  man's  bosom. 
That  the  standard  of  morals  is  greatly  elevated  by  the  Bible,  no 
well-informed  person  can  doubt.     A  comparison  of  heathen  tribes, 


680  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  MODERN  LITERATURE 

ancient  or  modern,  with  a  Christian  communit}'^  in  this  respect,  pre- 
sents ample  confirmation  of  this  position.  The  picture  of  heathen 
morals  drawn  by  the  Apostle  Paul  in  the  fii-st  chapter  of  Romans, 
and  in  sundry  other  passages  in  his  epistles,  is  found  reflected  in 
the  pages  of  the  most  polished  writers  of  classical  antiquity,  Greek 
and  Roman  both ;  and  the  testimony  of  missionaries  long  resi- 
dent among  the  heathen  of  our  own  day,  and  that  of  observant 
and  impartial  travellers,  assures  us  that  it  is  a  faithful  likeness  to 
the  present  hour.  The  pages  of  ancient  learning  and  elegance 
are  often  defaced  by  unutterable  abominations,  which  appear  to 
have  been  placed  there  with  hardly  a  consciousness  of  impropriety 
on  the  part  of  the  accomplished  writers.  There  may^  indeed,  be 
similar  abominations  perpetrated  in  the  bosom  of  society  now, 
and  possibly  the  amount  of  actual  wickedness  is  not  very  greatly 
diminished  in  our  day,  for  the  human  heart  is  always  the  same. 
But,  if  so,  the  evil  is  perpetrated  secretly,  and  cautiously,  not  chal- 
lenging notice  in  open  day.  It  is,  even  by  the  perpetrator,  felt 
to  be  an  evil,  a  thing  to  be  ashamed  of,  not  protruded  before  othera 
and  openly  gloried  in.  Works,  which,  in  the  polished  age  of  Au- 
gustus, were  evei^whero  well  received,  would  not  now  be  tole- 
rated :  no  man  would  dare  to  publish  them  in  any  country  in 
Christendom.  Even  in  the  corrupt  capitals  of  Europe,  however 
reckless  the  dissipation  of  actual  life,  literature  must  present  at 
least  the  external  aspect  of  decency.  The  unprincipled  and  the 
abandoned  may  now  be  as  desperately  wicked  as  were  the  most 
dissolute  among  the  heathen  of  old,  but  there  is  now,  through  the 
influence  of  the  Bible,  an  incomparably  larger  proportion  of  human 
society,  than  heathenism  ever  knew,  that  love  and  practise  purity 
of  life  ;  and  the  influence  of  these  serves  to  restrain  the  open  ex- 
hibition of  licentiousness,  in  every  part  of  the  community,  and  in 
every  grade  of  society. 

Moreover,  the  jjeaceful  spirit  of  revelation  has  spread  its  influ- 
ence far  and  wide,  through  every  part  of  human  society.  Men 
iio  longer  deem  all  foreign  nations  barbarians,  lying  almost  beyond 


TO  TSE  BIBLE.  531 

the  pale  of  humanity.  No  longer  is  warfare  conducted  in  the  spirit 
of  sanguinary  ferocity  that  prevailed  among  ancient  pagans,  and 
still  prevails  among  heathen  tribes.  Formerly  captives  taken  in 
war  were  put  to  death  in  cold  blood,  without  any  sense  of  injustice, 
any  feeling  of  shame.  The  mildest  doom  impending  over  the 
captive,  was  to  pass  his  life  in  hopeless  slavery  under  his  con- 
queror, or  those  to  whom  that  conqueror  might  sell  him.  "  Even 
so  late  as  the  sixteenth  century,  (says  Chancellor  Kent,)  in  many 
instances,  shipwrecked  strangers  were  made  prisoners,  and  sold  as 
slaves,  without  exciting  any  complaint,  or  offending  any  public 
sense  of  shame.  Numerous  cases  occurred  of  acts  of  the  grossest 
perfidy  and  cruelty  towards  mere  strangers,  as  well  as  towards  en- 
emies. Prisoners  were  put  to  death  for  their  galkntry  and  brave 
defence  in  war.  There  was  no  reliance  to  be  placed  upon  the 
word  and  honor  of  men  in  power."  Kent's  Com.  vol.  i.  p.  9.  But 
a  decided  reformation  of  manners  and  improvement  of  feeling  has 
been  effected  in  modern  times ;  "  and,"  says  Chancellor  Kent,  again, 
(vol.  i.  p.  10,)  "the  influence  of  Christianity  (i.  e.  the  Bible)  has 
been  very  efficient  towards  the  introduction  of  a  better  and  more 
enlightened  sense  of  right  and  justice  among  the  several  govern- 
ments of  Europe.  It  taught  the  duty  of  benevolence  to  strangers, 
of  humanity  to  the  vanquished,  of  the  obligation  of  good  faith, — 
of  the  sin  of  murder,  revenge,  and  rapacity.  The  history  of  Eu^ 
rope,  during  the  earlier  periods  of  modern  history,  abounds  with 
interesting  and  strong  cases,  to  show  the  authority  of  revelation 
over  turbulent  princes  and  fierce  warriors,  and  the  effect  of  that 
authority  in  meliorating  manners,  checking  violence,  and  introdu- 
cing a  system  of  morals  which  inculcated  peace,  moderation,  and 
justice."  Just  so  far  as  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  are  received 
which  teach  that  men  are  all  of  one  race*  members  of  one  family, 

*  It  is  gratifying  to  be  able  now  (April,  1852)  to  adduce  the  testimony 
of  a  scholar,  like  Bunsen,  expressed  in  a  work  published  long  after  this 
lecture  was  delivered, — as  to  the  decided  teaching  of  the  Bible,  that  men 
are  all  of  one  race  :  under  the  head  of  "  Greek  and  Roman  Research"  ih 


532  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  MODERN  LITERATURE 

children  of  the  same  Heavenly  Father,  may  the  spirit  of  humanity 
be  expected  to  prevail ;  and  when,  moreover,  the  soul's  immortality 
is  fully  admitted,  it  throws  a  sacredness  over  the  estimate  of  hu- 
man life,  and  presents  war  and  bloodshed  and  violence  in  a  most 
repulsive  light.  Accordingly,  a  more  humane  and  liberal  spirit 
characterizes  the  intercourse  of  nations  one  with  another  :  a  resort 
to  war  (except  in  cases  of  absolute  necessity)  is  everywhere  con- 
demned by  public  opinion,  and  modern  literature  shows  the  influ- 
ence o/  this  change ;  it  is  more  liberal,  it  breathes  less  of  a  san- 
guinary spirit,  and  exhibits  far  more  refinement,  gentleness,  and 
delicacy  of  feeling.  More  especially  is  this  change  apparent  in  the 
different  manner  in  which  woman  is  everywhere  treated  in  Chris- 
tian society,  and  the  different  light  in  which  she  is  depicted  and 
spoken  of  in  literary  works.  On  this  point  much  might  be  said, 
but  this  brief  allusion  must  here  suflBce.  As  woman  sways  a  gen- 
tle but  all-commanding  influence  at  the  domestic  hearth,  and  in 
the  community  around  her  ;  as  her  spirit  is  pre-eminently  the  pre- 
siding genius  of  home,  with  all  its  calm  joys ;  so,  in  the  literature 
of  modern  times,  the  altered  position  of  woman  seems  to  show  it- 
self, in  a  pure  and  hallowed  influence  shed  over  the  whole  range 

ancient  history,  Bunsen  thus  expresses  himself:  "  Soon  after  the  time  of 
Diodorus,  and  in  the  days  of  Pliny  himself,  when  the  spirit  of  Greek  his- 
torical research,  whether  as  regards  Egypt  or  the  ancient  world  at  large, 
had  become  extinct,  new  life  was  imparted  to  it  by  the  inspiring  sentiment 
of  tke  unity  of  human  nature^  shed  abroad  by  the  Christian  religion."  (Egypt'8 
Place  in  the  World's  History,  vol.  i.  p.  158.  Eng.  Trans.  Lond,  1848.) 
Here  the  learned  Bunsen  asserts  that  historical  research  derived  new  life 
from  the  doctrine  of  the  unity'of  human  races  taught  in  the  Bible ! 

Again :  '■  In  the  contemplation  of  human  history,  Faith  begins,  as  the 
Sacred  Books  do,  with  the  divine  origin  of  things,  and,  starting  from  the 
great  facts  of  creation,  and  the  unity  op  the  human  race."    (Idem,  p.  164.) 

This  testimony  is  full  and  explicit :  it  needs  no  comment.  A  mere  vul- 
gar prejudice,  as  the  advocates  of  diversity  of  races  call  the  doctrine  of 
the  unity  of  races,  could  hardly  have  exerted  this  enlivening  influence  on 
the  spirit  of  historical  research.  Error  is  not  usually  ennobling  in  its  in- 
fluences. 


TO  THE  BIBLE.  533 

of  literary  production.  Her  gentle  spirit  is  there,  as  in  the  home 
of  the  mind.  But  it  is  the  Bible  that  has  elevated  woman,  culti- 
vated her  mind,  polished  her  manners,  and  chastened  her  spirit ; 
and  through  her  it  has  sent  this  gentle  influence  on  human  inter- 
course and  on  modern  literature. 

But  again,  sixthly.  The  Bible  has  furnished  to  modern  litera- 
ture topics  of  peculiar  grandeur^  and  thouyhts  of  rare  beauty^  ut- 
terly unknoion  where  revelation  is  not.  How  poor  and  unsatisfac- 
tory were  the  conceptions  of  the  most  distinguished  writers  of  clas- 
sical antiquity  concerning  the  nature  and  the  destiny  of  man,  and 
especially  concerning  a  superior  power.  How  human  in  their 
passions,  and  degraded  in  character,  are  all  of  the  numerous  gods 
and  demi-gods  with  which  Homer  peoples  his  Olympus !  How 
even  the  wisest  of  the  ancient  philosophers  encumber  their  descrip- 
tion of  a  supreme  deity  by  the  notion  of  the  stern  decrees  of  irre- 
sistible fate,  to  which  the  highest  of  their  deities  is  subject !  Among 
many  things  that  are  beautiful,  and  some  that  are  truly  sublime, 
this  poverty  of  thought  respecting  the  Great  First  Cause  exerts  a 
belittling  influence  that  is  continually  felt.  In  the  writings  of  the 
wisest  of  the  ancients,  man  is  often  represented  as  equal  in  dignity 
of  character  to  their  gods,  if  not  positively  superior. 

But  now,  what  a  commanding  influence  over  the  whole  range 
of  human  thought  and  conception,  flows  from  the  sublime  idea  pre- 
sented in  revelation,  of  One  God,  the  cause  of  all  things,  himself 
uncaused,  eternal,  unchangeable,  supremely  independent,  perfect  in 
his  nature,  and  infinite  in  all  his  attributes  !  The  presentation  of 
that  one  glorious  conception  to  the  mind,  is  like  the  rising  of  the 
sun  to  the  bodily  vision ;  the  darkness  and  uncertainty  previously 
resting  on  every  object  are  dissipated,  and  a  ivorld  bursts  forth  to 
view,  in  all  its  beauty  of  forms,  its  symmetry  of  proportions,  and  its 
multipHcity  of  mutual  relations,  each  object  appearing  in  its  true 
nature,  its  proper  position,  its  due  connections !  Who  can  estimate 
the  far-reaching  influence  on  human  thought  of  this  one  discovery 
of  a  spiritual  Being,  the  Creator  of  all,  who  said,  "  Let  there  he 


534  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  MODERN   LITERATURE 

light  /"  and  there  was  light ;  who  "  spake^  and  it  was  done  ;  who 
commanded,  and  it  stood  fast  T  What  a  subject  for  reflection — 
an  Almighty  God,  omnipresent  and  omniscient !  How  can  it  do 
other  than  influence  and  new  model  the  whole  current  of  human 
thought,  and  the  very  modes  of  expressing  thought  ?  Now,  this 
grand  idea  is  derived  from  the  Bible,  and  no  one  yet  has  estimated 
the  amount  of  sublime  thought  and  ennobling  sentiment  it  has 
shed  over  our  modern  literature,  even  those  portions  of  it  that  have 
proceeded  from  men  who  scofi*  at  that  very  Bible  to  which  they 
are  indebted  for  nearly  every  thought  that  gives  force  and  beauty 
to  their  productions :  as,  e.  g.  that  conception  of  Byron's,  present- 
ing, in  the  presence  of  Manfred,  the  Spirit  of  Evil  to  the  gaze  of 
the  startled  Abbot,  who  exclaims,  with  pious  horror, 

"  Ah  !  he  unveils  his  aspect :  on  his  brow 
The  thunder  scars  are  graven  :  from  his  eye 
Glares  forth  the  immortality  of  hell !" 

The  doom  of  Cain  was  obviously  in  the  writer's  mind.  And  what 
but  a  reflected  image  of  grand  ideas  presented  in  the  Bible,  is  that 
beautiful  passage  near  the  close  of  Childe  Harold,  the  address  to 
the  ocean ! 

"  Roll  on,  thou  deep  and  dark  blue  ocean,  roll ! 
Ten  thousand  fleets  sweep  over  thee,  in  vain  : 
Man  marks  the  earth  with  ruin,  his  control 
Stops  with  the  shore  :  upon  the  watery  plain 
The  wrecks  are  all  thy  deed,  nor  doth  remain 
A  shadow  of  man's  ravage,  save  his  own, 
When,  for  a  moment,  like  a  drop  of  rain. 
He  sinks  into  thy  depths  with  bubbling  groan. 
Without  a  grave,  unknell'd,  uncoffin'd.  and  unknown. 

"  Time  writes  no  wrinkles  on  thine  azure  brow ; 
Such  as  creation's  dawn  beheld,  thou  rollest  now, 
Thou  glorious  mirror,  where  the  Almighty's  form 
Glasses  itself  in  tempests  :  in  all  time 
Cahn  or  convulsed,  in  breeze  or  gale  or  storm, 


TO  THE   BIBLE.  5S5 

Icing  the  pole,  or  in  the  torrid  clime 

Dark  heaving :  boundless,  endless,  and  sublime. 

The  image  of  eternity — the  throne 

Of  the  invisible  ; — even  from  out  thy  slime 

The  monsters  of  the  deep  are  made  ;  each  zone 

Obeys  thee; — thou  goest  forth  dread,  fathomless,  alone." 

Compared  vfith.  such  images,  the  finest  figures  of  ancient  classic 
eloquence  are  tame  and  common-place.  But  every  one  of  these 
splendid  images  is  furnished  in  the  Bible  !  Thus,  the  creation  of 
the  monsters  of  the  deep  out  of  the  slime  of  ocean,  is  an  idea  sug- 
gested by  that  passage  in  Genesis  ii.  20,  21.  And  God  created 
great  whales  (sea-monsters)  and  every  living  creature  that  moveth^ 
which  the  waters  brought  forth  abundantly,  after  their  kind.  The 
impotence  of  man  on  the  ocean,  is  suggested  by  contrast  from  the 
scriptural  declaration  of  God's  exclusive  power  to  say  to  the 
boisterous  element,  "  hitherto  shalt  thou  come,  and  no  further,  and 
here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed."  Job  xxxviii.  11.  While 
the  idea  of  the  ocean's  being  God's  throne,  and  the  Almightyh 
form  glassing  itself  in  tempests  upon  ocean,  as  in  a  mirror,  is 
only  a  beautiful  presentation  of  the  thought  so  often  found  in  Holy 
Writ,  that  God,  as  king,  sitteth  upon  the  floods  ;  he  maketh  dark- 
ness his  pavilion  round  about  him  ;  thick  clouds  and  tempests  are 
under  his  feet ; — yea,  he  rideth  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind ! — 
That  fine  passage  in  Manfred,  in  which  the  sage  defies  the  fiend, 
and  declares  himself  the  architect  of  his  own  destiny  : 

"  Back  to  thy  hell.    / 


Thou  hast  no  power  upon  me,  that  I  feel ; 
Thou  never  shalt  possess  me,  that  I  know. 
What  I  have  done,  is  done.    I  have  within    • 
A  torture  which  could  nothing  gain  from  thine 
The  mind  which  is  immortal,  makes  itself 
Requital  for  its  good  or  evil  thoughts, 
Is  its  own  origin  of  ill,  and  end. 
And  its  own  place  and  time ;  its  innate  sense, 
When  stripped  of  this  mortality,  derives 
No  color  from  the  fleeting  things  without ; 


536  INDEBTEDNESS   OF   MODERN   LITERATURE 

But  i3  absorbed  in  sufferance  or  in  joy, 
Born  from  the  knowledge  of  its  own  desert. 
Thou  didst  not  tempt  me.  and  thou  couldst  not  tempt  me; 
I  have  not  been  thy  dupe,  nor  am  thy  prey, 
»  But  was  my  own  destroyer,  and  will  be 

My  own  hereafter. — Back,  ye  baffled  fiends ! 
The  hand  of  death  is  on  me, — but  not  yours." 

This  very  spirited  passage  is  but  a  poetic  amplification  of  the  Bible 
doctrine,  "  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap." 

The  several  passages  in  different  writers  in  which  remorse  is  so 
vividly  described, — such  as  that  of  Pollok,  book  iii.  p.  83  : 

"  There  is  a  fire,  that  on  the  verge  of  God's  commandments 
Bums,  and  on  the  vitals  feeds  of  all  who  pass — 
Who  pass — there  meet  remorse  !" 

and  that  splendid  passage  in  Byron's  Giaour ; 

"  The  wind  that  broods  o'er  guilty  woes, 

Is  like  the  scorpion,  girt  by  fire. 
In  circle  narrowing  as  it  glows  ; 
The  flames  around  their  captive  close, 
Till,  inly  searched  by  thousand  throes, 

And  maddening  in  her  ire, 
One  sad  and  sole  relief  she  knows. 
The  sting  she  nourished  for  her  foes, 

Whose  venom  never  yet  was  vain, 

Gives  but  one  pang,  and  cures  all  pain, 

And  darts  into  her  desperate  brain. 
So  do  the  dark  in  soul  expire. 
Or  live,  like  scorpion  girt  by  fire : 
So  writhes  the  mind  remorse  hath  riven, — 
Unfit  for  earth,  undoom'd  for  heaven ; 
Darkness  above,  despair  beneath, 
Around  it  fiame,  within  it  death !" 

are  plainly  based  upon  the  Bible  representations  of  the  restlessness 
of  the  wicked,  to  whom  there  is  no  peace  ;  and  especially  upon  that 


TO  THE   BIBLE.  537 

terrific  image  of  unending  remorse  hereafter,  where  their  worm  dieth 
notj  and  the  Jire  is  not  quenched.  So  that  graphic  couplet  from 
Shakspeare's  Henry  VI. : 

"  Suspicion  always  haunts  the  guilty  mind ; 
The  thief  doth  fear  each  bush  an  officer." 

and  again — 

"  What  stronger  breast-plate  than  a  heart  untainted. 
Thrice  is  he  armed  that  hath  his  quarrel  just ; 
And  he,  but  naked, — though  locked  up  in  steel, 
Whose  conscience  with  injustice  is  corrupted." 

(Henry  VI.  Part  II.) 

exhibit,  only  more  amplified,  the  thought  of  Solomon,  "  The  wicked 
flee  when  no  man  pursueth ; — but  the  righteous  are  bold  as  a  lion !" 
Prov.  xxviii.  1. — The  same  thought,  doubtless,  gave  birth  to  those 
striking  lines  in  Scott's  Marmion : 

"  Thus  oft  it  haps,  that  when  within 
They  shrink  at  sense  of  secret  sin, 

A  feather  daunts  the  brave  : 
A  fool's  wild  speech  confounds  the  wise, 
And  proudest  princes  veil  their  eyes 
Before  their  meanest  slave." 

There  is  a  curious  and  very  beautiful  idea  presented  in  Camp- 
bell's Gertrude  of  Wyoming,  viz.,  that  the  very  dagger  which  slays 
the  cruel  foe,  is  sharpened  by  contact  with  the  heart  it  smites  : 

"  Old  Outalissi  woke  his  battle  song — 

*  *  *  *  *  if. 

To  whet  a  dagger  on  their  stony  hearts, 

And  smile  avenged,  ere  yet  his  eagle  spirit  parts." 

A  similar  thought  is  involved  in  the  bitter  taunt  that  Gratiano 
throws  out  against  Shylock,  as  he  is  whetting  his  knife  on  the  sole 

23*^ 


688  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  MODERN  LITERATURE 

of  his  shoe,  in  the  trial  of  Antonio,  on  his  bond,  before  the  Duke, 
in  the  Merchant  of  Venice : 

'•  Not  on  thy  sole,  but  on  thy  soul,  harsh  Jew, 
Thou  mak'st  thy  knife  keen !" 

Now,  in  both  these  passages,  the  thought  is  but  a  reflected  image 
of  the  figure  so  often  employed  in  the  Bible,  of  "a  heart  of  stone^'' 
to  denote  extreme  obduracy  in  evil. 

It  is  from  the  Bible  alone  that  we  derive  any  certain  knowledge 
of  a  future  state ;  the  idea  of  a  heaven  of  purity  and  joy  for  the 
righteous,  of  a  hell  of  sorrow  for  the  wicked.  How  puerile  were 
the  conceptions  of  the  ancient  philosophers  as  to  the  condition  of 
the  good  in  Elysium,  (a  land  of  discontented  shadows,  pining  ever 
after  earth  and  its  pleasures,)  and  of  the  fantastic  griefs  of  the  bad 
in  Tartarus, — when  compared  with  the  recorded  decision  of  the 
Bible,  "  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  lie  also  reap,''^  in 
heaven,  or  in  hell  forever !  How  many  pleasing  associations,  also, 
are  connected  with  our  knowledge  of  angelic  beings,  spirits  yet  no- 
bler than  men !  But  the  existence  of  angels  is  made  known  to  us 
only  in  the  Bible  ! 

Withdraw  the  Bible,  then,  from  among  men,  destroy  the  knowl- 
edge of  all  that  is  taught  in  the  Bible,  and  what  words  can  express 
the  change  which  would  at  once  take  place  in  our  literature  ?  The 
origin  of  man,  the  fall,  the  deluge,  the  early  history  of  our  race, 
the  primal  settlement  of  nations, — the  history  of  the  patriarchs, 
the  origin  and  early  history  of  that  singular  race,  the  Jews,  are 
all,  all,  effectually  swept  out  of  memory :  with  them,  the  splendid 
creations  of  Milton's  genius  sink  into  annihilation  ;  Bunyan's  Pil- 
grim and  his  Holy  War  are  lost  to  us ;  the  manly  reasoning  cf 
Paley,  the  profound  argument  of  Butler,  the  eloquence  of  Barrow 
and  Sherlock,  of  Tillotson  and  Taylor,  of  Howe  and  Flavel,  of 
Robert  Hall,  of  Dwight  and  Chalmers,  are  all  lost  to  us.  The 
learned  labors  of  Prideaux  and  Leland,  and  Stillingfleet  and  Wat- 
son, of  Leslie  and  West,  of  Michaelis,  of  Bengel  and  Kennicott, 


TO  THE   BIBLE.  539 

of  Beza,  of  Calvin,  of  Luther,  and  of  a  host  innumerable,  are  all 
buried  in  eternal  oblivion ;  while  the  sweetest  strains  of  Klopstock, 
of  Tasso,  of  Dante,  of  our  own  Thomson  and  Pope,  of  Cowper 
and  Montgomery,  of  Campbell  and  of  Scott,  die  away  in  eternal 
silence.  The  reasonings  of  Locke,  of  Stewart,  of  Reid,  and  even 
of  Brown,  must  be  entirely  new-modelled ;  and  scarcely  will  the 
department  of  natural  science  remain  unscathed,  so  wide-spread,  so 
almost  universal  would  be  the  sweep  of  destruction  among  the  no- 
blest works  of  our  literature,  that  must  follow  in  the  train  of  the 
Bible's  extinction. 

Moreover,  from  the  mere  remnant  of  literature  that  would  escape 
utter  oblivion,  the  richest  ornaments,  the  most  striking  thoughts,  the 
most  impressive  figures  would  be  erased  : — for  the  choicest  of  all 
these  are  borrowed  from  the  Bible.  When  you  meet  with  a  pecu- 
liarly grand  thought,  or  forcible  figure,  in  the  works  of  such  writers 
as  Dryden,  Pope,  Byron — aye,  Shakspeare  himself,  the  master 
deeply  learned  in  the  human  heart — you  will  find,  almost  cer- 
tainly, that  it  is  drawn  from  the  Bible  ;  it  is  the  echo  of  some 
thought  there  found.  Thus  that  beautiful  closing  line  in  the  fune- 
ral song,  on  the  burial  of  Sir  John  Moore,  "  We  left  him  alone  loith 
his  glory .'"  is  obviously  but  a  reflex  image  of  the  sublime  picture 
furnished  by  Isaiah,  when  describing  Sheol,  the  place  where  the 
dead  are  congregated :  "  All  the  kings  of  the  earth,  even  all  of 
them,  lie  in  glory,  every  one  in  his  own  house !"     Isa.  xiv.  18. 

In  like  manner,  Byron's  Giaour  has  a  fine  passage,  in  which, 
after  Hassan  has  been  slain  by  a  sudden  onslaught  of  his  foe,  the 
Giaour,  the  mother  of  Hassan  is  represented  as  awaiting  his  return, 
and  wondering  at  his  delay ;  thus — 

"  The  browsing  camel  bells  are  tinkling, 

His  mother  looked  from  her  lattice  high, 
She  saw  the  dews  of  eve  besprinkling 

The  pasture  green  beneath  her  eye, 
She  saw  the  planets  faintly  twinkling : 

'Tis  twilight, — sure  his  train  is  nigh. 


640  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  MODERN  LITERATURE 

/»      She  could  not  rest  in  his  garden  bower, 

But  gazed  through  the  grate  of  his  steepest  tower  : 

Why  comes  he  not  7  his  steeds  are  fleet, 

Nor  shrink  tliey  from  the  summer  heat ; 
Why  sends  not  the  bridegroom  his  promised  gift  Y* 

This  spirited  description  is  but  a  modern  application  of  a  yet  finer 
passage  in  the  triumphant  song  of  Deborah,  the  Jewish  prophetess 
and  judge  (Judges  v.  28-30) :  "  The  mother  of  Sisera  looked  out 
at  a  window,  and  cried  through  the  lattice,  *  Why  is  his  chariot  so 
long  in  coming  ?  Why  tarry  the  wheels  of  his  chariots  V  Her 
wise  ladies  answered  her,  yea,  she  returned  answer  to  herself,  Have 
they  not  sped  ?  Have  they  not  divided  the  prey  ?  to  every  man  a 
damsel  or  two  :  to  Sisera  a  prey  of  divers  colors,  of  divers  colors 
of  needlework,  of  divers  colors  of  needlework  on  both  sides,  meet 
for  the  necks  of  them  that  t-ike  the  spoils  ?" 

That  touching  passage  in  Childe  Harold,  in  which  the  untimely 
death  of  the  Princess  Charlotte  of  England,  and  of  her  new-born 
son,  is  lamented,  is  but  a  sweet  echo  of  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
passages  found  in  the  Hebrew  prophets : 

"  Hark !  forth  from  the  abyss  a  voice  proceeds, 

A  long  low  distant  murmur  of  dread  sound, 
Such  as  arises  when  a  nation  bleeds 

With  some  deep  and  immedicable  wound; 
Through  storm  and  darkness  yawns  the  pending  ground, 

The  gulf  is  thick  with  phantoms ;— but  the  chief 
Seems  royal  still,  though  with  her  head  discrowned 

And  pale— but  lovely,  ♦         ♦         ♦         ♦ 

Scion  of  chiefs  and  monarchs  !  where  art  thou  1 

Fond  hope  of  many  nations — art  thou  dead  1 
Could  not  the  grave  forget  thee,  and  lay  low 

Some  less  majestic,  less  beloved  head  1" 

This  is  truly  beautiful,  but  its  whole  beauty  is  borrowed; — 'tis 
only  a  skilful  application  of  that  passage  in  Isaiah  which  represents 
the  shades  of  the  monarchs  of  earth  gathered  in  Acheron,  and 
awaiting  the  coming  of  the  shade  of  the  mighty  king  of  Babylon  : 


TO  THE  BIBLE.  641 

"  The  abyss  from  beneath  is  moved  for  thee,  to  meet  thee  at  thy 
coming  :  it  stirreth  up  the  dead  for  thee,  even  all  the  chief  ones  of 
the  earth  :  it  hath  raised  up  from  their  thrones  all  the  kings  of  the 
nations.  All  they  shall  speak,  and  shall  say  unto  thee.  Art  thou 
also  become  weak  as  we  ?  Thy  pomp  is  brought  down  to  the 
grave,  and  the  noise  of  thy  viols  :  the  worm  is  spread  under  thee, 
and  the  worms  cover  thee.  How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  O 
Lucifer,  son  of  the  morning  !  how  art  thou  cut  down  to  the  ground, 
which  didst  weaken  the  nations!"     (Isaiah  xiv.  9-12.) 

So  also  that  affecting  picture  which  the  noble  poet  presents  to 
the  widowed  husband  of  the  lamented  princess : 

"  Of  sackcloth  was  thy  wedding  garments  made, 
Thy  bridal  fruit  is  ashes  :  in  the  dust 
The  fair-haired  daughter  of  the  isles  is  laid ; — 
The  love  of  millions,        *       *        *        * 

(Childe  Harold,  Canto  IV.  clxx.) 

is  but  a  judicious  appHcation  of  the  figures  which  are  furnished  in 
the  Hebrew  prophet's  delineation  of  the  afflicted  daughter  of  Judah, 
Lam.  ii.  10  :  "  The  elders  of  the  daughter  of  Judah  sit  upon  the 
ground,  and  keep  silence :  they  have  cast  up  dust  upon  their 
heads,  they  have  girded  themselves  with  sackcloth :  the  virgins  of 
Jerusalem  hang  down  their  heads  to  the  ground."  And  also  Jere- 
miah vi.  26  :  "  Oh,  daughter  of  Judah,  gird  thee  with  sackcloth, 
and  wallow  thyself  in  ashes  :  make  thee  mourning  as  for  an  only 
son,  most  bitter  lamentation." 

Nor  is  it  a  far-fetched,  nor  an  improbable  idea,  that  would  at- 
tribute the  poetic  beauty  which  invests  the  introduction,  by  Shak- 
speare,  of  the  ghost  of  Banquo,  and  of  that  of  Hamlet's  father,  to 
the  ideas  awakened  in  the  poet's  mind  by  the  Old  Testament  record 
of  the  raising  up  of  the  spirit  of  the  prophet  Samuel,  by  the  witch 
of  Endor  ;  and  also  the  whole  of  the  great  dramatic  bard's  super- 
natural machinery  of  the  witches  in  Macbeth,  the  fairies  in  the 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  and  the  obedient  spirits  of  Prosper© 


642  INDEBTEDNESS  OP  MODERN  LITERATURE 

in  the  Tempest,  to  the  obscure  intimations  given  in  the  sacred 
record,  of  men's  having  attempted,  in  times  of  old,  to  have  dealings 
with  familiar  spirits.  I  here  hazard  no  conjecture  as  to  the  true 
interpretation  of  such  passages  in  holy  writ.  I  am  alluding  merely 
to  the  influence  which  the  ix)pular  understanding  of  them  has  had 
on  prevalent  superstitions,  and  on  our  literature,  into  which  these 
superstitions  have  been  wrought  with  so  much  skill,  and  so  fine  an 
effect.  Nor  can  we  doubt  that  the  idea  of  Mephistopheles  in  his 
Faust,  and  of  his  dance  and  song  of  the  witches,  was  so  suggested 
to  Goethe ; — and  of  his  Manfred  to  Byron.  In  his  last-mentioned 
poem,  also,  the  appearance  of  the  shadowy  outline  of  the  fiend 
before  Manfred,  slowly  only,  and  with  horror,  discerned  by  the  pious 
Abbot,  thus — 

"  Manf.    Look  there  ! — what  dost  thou  see  1 
Ab.    Nothing  I 
Manf.    Look  there,  I  say, 

And  steadfastly : — now  tell  me  what  thou  seest ! 
Ab.    That  which  should  shake  me,— but  I  fear  it  not. 
I  see  a  dark  and  awful  figure  rise, 
Like  an  infernal  god,  from  out  the  earth ; 
His  face  wrapt  in  a  mantle,  and  his  form 
Robed  as  with  angry  clouds," 

strongly  brings  to  mind  that  sublime  passage  in  the  book  of  Job 
(Job  iv.  14-16):  "In  thoughts  from  visions  of  the  night,  when 
deep  sleep  falleth  on  men,  fear  came  upon  me  and  trembling, 
which  made  all  my  bones  to  shake.  Then  a  spirit  passed  before 
my  face ;  the  hair  of  my  flesh  stood  up.  It  stood  still, — but  I 
could  not  discern  the  form  thereof:  an  image  was  before  mine 
eyes ; — there  was  silence,  and  I  heard  a  voice."  The  dream  of 
Clarence,  in  Shakspeare's  Richard  III.,  is  cast  in  the  same  mould. 
These  are  but  specimens,  hastily  selected,  in  illustration  of  my  po- 
sition, that  many  of  the  finest  sentiments,  and  the  most  beautiful 
images  that  adorn  our  modern  literature,  are  only  the  echoes  of 
thoughts  expressed  in  the  Bible. 


TO   THE   BIBLE.  543 

And  nowhere  is  this  rich  echo  of  Bible  thoughts  more  distinctly 
perceptible  than  in  that  inimitable  address  of  Portia,  when  person- 
ating the  learned  Dr.  Balthazar,  to  the  relentless  Shylock,  in  order 
to  move  him  to  abate  the  rigor  of  his  demand  against  Antonio,  in 
the  Merchant  of  Venice : 

"  The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strained ; 
It  droppeth,  as  the  gentle  rain  from  heaven 
Upon  the  earth  beneath.     It  is  twice  blessed : 
It  blesseth  him  that  gives,  and  him  that  takes : 
'Tis  mightiest  in  the  mightiest :  it  becomes 
The  throned  monarch  better  than  his  crown. 
His  sceptre  shows  the  force  of  temporal  power, 
The  attribute  of  awe  and  majesty, 
Wherein  doth  sit  the  dread  and  fear  of  kings. 
But  mercy  is  above  this  sceptred  sway ; 
It  is  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  kings, 
It  is  an  attribute  of  God  himself ; 
And  earthly  power  doth  then  show  likest  God's 
When  mercy  seasons  justice.     Therefore,  Jew  ! 
Though  justice  be  thy  plea,  consider  this, 
That  in  the  course  of  justice,  none  of  us 
Should  see  salvation  :  we  do  pray  for  mercy ; 
And  that  same  prayer  doth  teach  us  all  to  render 
The  deeds  of  mercy." 

So  clearly  does  this  fine  passage  re-echo  Bible  thoughts  through- 
out, that  it  is  difficult,  as  we  hear  it,  not  to  feel  as  though  listening 
to  sentences  selected  directly  from  the  Bible  itself.  And  truly  the 
language  used  in  the  Bible  comes  very  near  it :  e.  g.  "  Mercy  re- 
joiceth  against  judgment,"  Jas.  ii.  13.  "The  discretion  of  a  man 
deferreth  his  anger,  and  it  is  his  glory  to  pass  by  a  transgression," 
Prov.  xix.  11.  "  Mercy  and  truth  preserve  a  king  ;  and  his  throne 
is  upholden  by  mercy,"  Prov.  xx.  28.  "  Forgive  us  our  trespasses, 
as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass  against  us."  "  Verily  I  say  unto 
you,  if  ye  forgive  not  every  man  his  brother  their  trespasses,  neither 
will  your  heavenly  Father  forgive  you."  "*^ 


544  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  MODERN  LITERATURE 

Again, — that  much  admired  passage  in  the  Tempest : 

'*  The  cloud-capt  towers,  the  gorgeous  palaces, 
The  solemn  temples,  the  great  globe  itself, 
Yea,  all  which  it  inherit,  shall  dissolve, 
And,  like  this  unsubstantial  pageant  faded, 
Leave  not  a  rack  behind  :    We  are  such  stuflT 
As  dreams  are  made  of,  and  our  little  life  ^ 

Is  rounded  with  a  sleep." 

is  nothing  more  than  a  fine  amplification  of  two  short  passages  from 
the  Bible  :  "  The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away."  And  again, 
"  What  is  your  lifef  It  is  even  a  vapor,  that  appeareth  for  a  little 
time,  and  then  vanisheth  away  I"  From  the  same  source,  doubtless, 
sprung  that  fine  passage  in  Prior's  Solomon : 

"  A  flower  that  does  with  opening  dawn  arise, 
And,  flourishing  the  day,  at  evening  dies ; 
A  winged  eastern  blast,  just  skimming  o'er 
The  ocean's  brow,  and  sinking  on  the  shore ; 
A  fire,  whose  flames  through  crackling  stubble  fly ; 
A  meteor,  shooting  from  the  summer  sky  ; 
A  bowl,  adown  the  bending  mountain  rolled ; 
A  bubble  breaking,— and  a  fable  told : 
A  noontide  shadow,  and  a  midnight  dream ; 
Are  emblems,  which,  with  semblance  apt,  proclaim 
Our  earthly  course." 

So  also  that  of  Fawkes : 

'*  If  life  a  thousand  years,  or  e'er  so  few, 
*Tis  repetition  all,  and  nothing  new: 
A  fair,  where  thousands  meet,  but  none  can  stay ; 
An  inn,  where  travellers  meet,  and  post  away." 

And  how  majestically  does  Shakspeare  make  the  fallen  Wolsey 
echo  the  sentiment  of  the  Hebrew  prophet,  "  All  flesh  is  grass,  and 
the  glory  thereof  as  the  flower  of  grass,"  &c. 


TO  THE   BIBLE.  546 

"  Farewell,  a  long  farewell  to  all  my  greatness ! 
This  is  the  state  of  man :    To-day  he  puts  forth 
The  tender  leaves  of  hope  :  to-morrow,  blossoms, 
And  bears  his  blushing  honors  thick  upon  him  : 
The  third  day  comes  a  frost,— a  killing  frost; 
And,  when  he  thinks,  (good  easy  man,)  full  surely 
His  greatness  is  a  ripening, — nips  his  root, 
And  then  he  falls  as  I  do." 

Just  so  says  the  prophet,  "  The  wind  passeth  over  it,  and  it  is 
gone." 

The  Bible  is  replete  with  passages  of  the  highest  sublimity — 
passages,  many  of  which  breathe,  also,  a  most  touching  eloquence. 
Such  are,  the  song  of  Deborah  and  Barak,  in  Judges  :  the  reception 
given  by  the  shades  of  Hades  to  the  spirit  of  Babylon's  king,  as 
presented  in  Isa.  chap,  xiv.,  already  referred  to.  Such,  also,  is  the 
triumphant  song  of  the  Israelites,  on  viewing  the  destruction  of 
Egypt's  martial  hosts  in  the  Red  Sea,  (Exodus,  chap,  xv.)  Such  is 
the  prayer  of  Jonah,  (Jonah,  chap.  ii. ;)  and  where  shall  we  find,  in 
any  writings,  a  passage  fuller  of  grand  imagery  than  the  prayer  of 
the  prophet  Habakkuk,  chap.  iii.  3-1 6  ?  Where  are  subhmity  and 
beauty  more  richly  combined  than  in  the  104th  Psalm  ?  "  0  Lord 
my  God,  thou  art  very  great,"  &c.  <fec.  Where  can  you  find  a 
more  touching  description  of  goodness  worthy  of  the  Deity,  than 
in  Psalm  ciii.?  "  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children,  so  the  Lord 
pitieth  them  that  fear  him,"  &c.  &c.  How  beautiful  and  how  ap- 
propriate, too,  is  the  picture  drawn  by  Moses  (Deut.  xxxii.  9,  14) 
of  the  care  of  Jehovah  for  his  own  covenant  people  !  "  The  Lord's 
portion  is  his  people ;  Jacob  is  the  lot  of  his  inheritance.  He 
found  him  in  a  desert  land,  and  in  the  waste  howling  wilderness ; 
he  led  him  about,  he  instructed  him,  he  kept  him  as  the  apple  of 
his  eye.  As  an  eagle  stirreth  up  her  nest,  fluttereth  over  her 
young,  spreadeth  abroad  her  wings,  taketh  thera,  beareth  them  on 
her  wings ;  so  the  Lord  alone  did  lead  him,  and  there  was  no 
strange  god  with  him.  He  made  him  ride  on  the  high  places  of 
the  earth,  that  he  might  eat  the  increase  of  the  fields ;  and  he 


546  INDEBTEDNESS  OF   MODERN   LITERATURE 

made  him  to  suck  honey  out  of  the  rock,  and  oil  out  of  the  flinty 
rock."  But  I  forbear ;  the  Bible  is  full  of  such  imagery,  grand, 
striking,  and  afiecting.  Do  you  look  for  pathos  ?  What  more 
pathetic  than  David's  lament  over  Jonathan  and  Saul,  slain  in  bat- 
tle (2  Sam.  i.  17-27  ?)  What  more  aftecting  than  the  royal  fa- 
ther's heart-piercing  lamentation  over  his  fair-haired  but  rebellious 
son  ?  "  O  my  son,  Absalom  !  my  son,  my  son  Absalom !  Would 
God  I  had  died  for  thee,  O  Absalom,  my  son,  my  son  I" 

Would  you  ponder  deeply  the  treasured  results  of  wisdom,  the 
dear  bought  fruits  of  experience  ?  You  have,  in  the  book  of  Prov- 
erbs, an  exhaustless  storehouse  of  wisdom,  for  the  guidance  of  your 
conduct  in  all  the  diversified  circumstances  of  human  life.  The 
one  short  book  of  Proverbs  contains  more  sound  practical  wisdom, 
than  can  be  gathered  from  all  the  boasted  teachings  of  all  the  re- 
nowned philosophers  of  antiquity  and  of  modern  times  combined. 

Now  the  Bible,  thus  teeming  with  wisdom,  and  blazing  with 
beauty  of  thought  and  splendor  of  imagery,  has,  for  ages,  been  in 
the  hands  of  men  ;  and  these  thrilling  passages  have  been  before 
their  eyes  and  present  to  their  minds ;  and  they  have  mingled  in 
the  thoughts  and  assisted  to  mould  the  conceptions  and  to  deter- 
mine the  phraseology  of  our  most  masterly  writers. 

Let  the  Bible  and  its  influences,  direct  and  indirect,  be  blotted 
out  of  existence,  and  you  at  once  extinguish  the  sun  that  illumines 
our  literary  heavens,  and  you  impair  the  strength  and  mar  the 
beauty  of  our  whole  literature. 

That  book  which,  whenever  possessed,  has  fostered  the  spirit  of 
learning  in  all  its  varied  departments ;  which  has  given  birth  to 
some  of  the  profoundest  works  in  existence,  written  solely  for  its 
illustration  ;  which  has  laid  a  broad  foundation  for  the  science  of 
jurisprudence;  has  promoted  (far  as  it  has  been  known)  general 
intelligence  among  the  mass  of  the  people  ;  which  has  decidedly 
elevated  the  tone  of  morals,  has  imbued  mankind  with  a  gentler 
spirit,  and  has  mitigated  the  horrors  of  war ;  that  book  which  (be- 
sides doing  all  this)  has  furnished  to  our  most  admired  writers 


TO  THE  BIBLE.  647 

topics  of  unrivalled  grandeur,  and  images  of  peculiar  beauty,  so 
that  its  annihilation  would  deface  the  largest  and  the  fairest  por- 
tion of  our  hterature ;  that  book  may  well  awaken  our  admiration, 
ensure  our  respect,  and  commend  itself  to  our  closest  attention,  as 
the  sun  of  true  knowledge,  the  light  and  glory  of  our  literature,  a 
prize  invaluable  to  human  society,  a  boon  of  priceless  worth  to 
every  young  man. 

And  that  book  is  the  Bible,  Heaven's  best  gift  to  man.  It  is 
the  repository  of  noble  thoughts,  the  originator  of  splendid  imagery, 
the  oracle  of  soundest  wisdom.  It  is  a  counsellor  to  the  young, — 
a  solace  to  the  aged.  It  is  the  grand  text  hook  to  the  true  student ! 
It  sparkles  with  brilliance,  it  blazes  with  beauty,  and  it  breathes  the 
spirit  of  liberty.     It  is  emphatically  and  pre-eminently,  the  book 

FOR  THE  PEOPLE  ! 

"  Most  wondrous  book !  bright  candle  of  the  Lord ! 
Star  of  eternity  !  the  only  star 
By  which  the  bark  of  man  could  navigate 
The  sea  of  life,  and  gain  the  coast  of  bliss 
Securely ; — only  star  which  rose  on  Time, 
And,  on  its  dark  and  troubled  billows,  still. 
As  generation  drifting  swiftly  by,  / 

Succeeded  generation, — threw  a  ray 
Of  heaven's  own  light,— and  to  the  hills  of  God, 
The  everlasting  hills, — pointed  the  sinner's  eye. 
This  book, — this  glorious  book,  on  every  line 
Marked  with  the  seal  of  high  divinity ; 
On  every  leaf  bedewed  with  drops  of  love 
Divine, — and  with  the  eternal  heraldry 
And  signature  of  God  Almighty  stampt 
From  first  to  last, — this  ray  of  sacred  light, 
This  lamp,  from  off  the  everlasting  throne, 
Mercy  took  down,  and,  in  the  night  of  time 
Stood,  casting  on  the  dark  her  gracious  bow ; 
And  evermore  beseeching  men  with  tears 
And  earnest  sighs,  to  read,  believe,  and  live  !" 

POLLOK,  B.  I. 


LIST  OF   AUTHORITIES 

QUOTED  OR  REFERRED  TO  IN  THIS  WORK. 

The  Editions  found  in  the  Author's  Library,  being  used  in  the 
work,  are  here  given  for  readier  reference. 

^Ancient  Fragments,  J.  P.  Cory,  1  vol.  8vo.  Lond.  1882. 

Alphabet  OrUnkUis  chcr  Sprachen,  1  vol.  8vo.     Leipzig,  1860. 

Indian  Antiquities,  T,  Maurice,  7  vols.  8vo.    Lond.  1810. 

Gallery  of  ArUiquUies  in  the  British  Museum.     Part  I.  4to.     Birch,  Lond. 

Ansted's  Ancient  World,  1  vol.  8vo.    Lond.  1847. 

Voyage  de  VArabie  Pelree,  Laborde,  folio,  1  vol.     Paris,  1830. 

Asiatic  Researches,  13  vols.  8vo.    Calcutta,  1789. 

Aspects  of  Nature,  Uumboldt,  1  vol.  12mo.     Pliiladelphia,  1849. 

Report  of  the  British  Association,  dwj.,  8vo.  1847. 

Aicswahl   Wichtigsten  Urknnden  des  ^gyplischen  AUelchums,  Dr.  R.  Lep- 
sius.    Leipzig,  1842.    Folio,  1  vol.    Plates. 

La  Bible,  Traduction  NouveUe,  S.  Cahen,  20  vols.  8vo.     Paris,  1832. 
.    f'cople's  Bible  Dictionary,  Dr.  Beard,  2  vols.     Lond.  1830. 
\/CoUman's  Historical  Geography  of  the  Bible,  1  vol.  12mo.    Phila.  1850. 

Stackhouse's  History  of  the  Bible,  1  very  large  volume,  with  copious  notes. 
London,  1846. 

China  Opened,  Ch.  Outzlaff,  2  vols.    Lond.  1838. 

MedhursCs  China,  1  vol.  8vo.     Lond.  1842. 

China,  &c.  &c.,  Montgom.  Martin,  2  vols.  8vo.    Lond.  1847. 

Chinese  and  Egyptian  Writing,  Mon.  Pauthier.    Paris.  1840. 
'^Life  of  Christ,  Dr.  Strauss,  3  vols.    Lond,  1846. 

Blunt' s  Undesigned  Coincidences,  1  vol.  8vo.     New  York,  1861. 

Analysis  of  Chronology,  Hale,  4  vols.     Lond.  1830. 
"^ Co}i7iections  of  Sacred  and  Profane  History,  Russell,  3  vols.  8vo.     Lond. 

1830. 
X^ouTiections  of  Sacred  and  Profane  History,  Shurkfond,  2  vols.  8vo,    Phil- 
adelphia, 1824. 


LIST   OF  AUTHORITIES.  649 

»    Connections  of  Sacred  and  Profane  History,   Dr.  Prideaux,  4  vols.  8vo. 
Charlestown,  Mass.  1815. 
Cosmos,  Humboldt,  3  vola  New  York,  1850-1851. 
Crania  Americana,  Dr.  Morton,  1  vol.  4to.    Philadelphia,  1839. 
Crania  Americana,  Dr.  Morton,  1  vol.  4to.    London,  1844. 

V  Course  of  Creation,  Dr.  Anderson,  1  vol.    Lond.  1850. 
\'  Epoch  of  Creation,  E.  Lord.    New  York,  1851. 

Cyclopadia  of  Bib.  Literature,  Kitto,  2  vols.  8vo.    New  York. 
China  in  Edinburgh  Cabinet  Library,  3  vols.     Edinburgh,  1836. 
Doctrine  of  the  Deluge,  Harcourt,  2  vols,  8vo.     Lond.  1838. 

V  Divine  LegoMon  of  Moses,  Dr.  Warburton,  2  vols.  8vo.     Lond.  1837. 
*^ Antiquities  of  Egypt,  W,  Osburne,  1  vol.  8vo.    Lond.  1847. 
i^Earth  and  Man,  Guyot,  1  vol.    Boston,  1849. 

Eleven  Years  in  Ceylon,  Maj.  Forbes,  2  vols.  8vo.    Lond.  1841. 
*"  Egypt,  Dr.  Russel's,  in  Edinburgh  Cabinet  Library,  1  vol.     Edinb.  1836. 
n  Egypt,  her  Testimony  to  the  Truth,  Osburne,  1  vol.  8vo,    Lond.  1846. 
f^  Egypt  and  its  Monuments,  Dr.  Hawks,  1  vol.  8vo.    New  York,  1850. 
k^  Egypt  and  the  Books  of  Moses,  Hengstenberg,  1  vol.  12mo.    Andover,  1843. 

Ancient  Egypt,  Kenrick,  2  vols.  8vo.     Lond.  1850. 

Egypte  sous  les  Pharaons,  ChampoUion,  2  vols.  8vo.    Paris,  1814. 

Lettres  sur  V Egypte,  Nestor  de  I'Hote,  1  vol,    Paris,  1840. 

Egypte  Pharaoniqiie,  D.  M.  J.  Henri,  2  vols.  8vo.     Paris,  1846. 

Egypte  Andenne,  ChampoUion  Figeac,  (I'Univers  Pittoresque,)  1  vol.  8vo. 
Paris,  1847. 

Recherches  sur  V Astronomic  de  VEgypte,  E.  Biot,  1  vol.     Paris,  1823. 

Recherches  en  Egypte  et  en  NvMe,  J.  Ampere,  Revue  des  Deux  Moudes. 
1846-1849.    Paris. 

uFjgypten''s  Stelle  in  der  Weltgeschichte,  Bunsen,  3  vols.  8vo.  Hamburg,  1845. 

TVanslation  (Eng.)  of  1st  vol.  of  Bunsen's  Egypt's  Place,  &c.,  by  Cottrell. 
Lond.  1848. 

Otia  Egyptiaca,  by  Gliddon,  1  vol.  8vo.    Lond.  1849. 

Egyptian  Chronology,  Dr.  Nolan,  1  vol.  8vo.     Lond.  1848. 
V'  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  Sir  J,  G,  Wilkinson,  6  vols. 
8vo,  viz,  1st  series,  3  vols,  with  plates:  2d  series,  3  vols.,  i.  e.  two  vol- 
umes of  text  and  one  volume  of  plates.    Lond.  1842. 

Egyptian  Hieroglyphics  and  Antiquities,  the  Marquis  Spineto,  1  vol,  8vo. 
Lond.  1845. 

Monumenti  delV  Egytto  et  della  Nubia,  &c.,  Rosellini,  9  vols.  8vo.  Italian, 
and  15  parts.     Plates,  large  folio.     Pisa,  1832-1844. 

Encyclopcedia  of  Antiquities,  Fosbrook,  2  vols.  8vo.    Lond.  1843. 


556  LIST  OF  AUTHORITIES. 

Eluies  sur  le  Timee  de  PUUon,  T.  Marten.    Paris,  1841. 

EthnohgicaZ  Journal,  London.     Nos.  I.  to  IX. 

Expedition  to  the  Dead  Sea,  Lieut.  Lynch,  U.S.N.  1  vol.  Philadelphia,  1849. 

Christian  Examiner.    Boston,  July,  1850. 

Expedition  to  the  Niger,  Q.  A.  Allen  and  Dr.  Thomson,  2  vols.  8vo.   Lond. 

1848. 
Footprints  of  the  Creator,  Hugh  Miller,  1  vol.  12mo.    Lond.  1849. 
Geology,  Richardson,  1  vol.  12mo.    Lond.  1843. 
Religion  of  Geology,  Prof.  E.  Hitchcock,  1  vol.     Boston,  1851. 
Geology  of  Alabama,  Report  of  Prof.  Tuomey.     Tuscaloosa,  1851. 

eology,  the  Principles  of,  Sir  C.  Lyell,  1  vol.  8vo.    Lond.  1850. 
Gospel^  Genuineness  of  Prof.  Norton.    Lond.  1848. 
Bopp's  Comparative  Grammar,  2  vols.    Lond.  1846. 
History  of  Greece,  W.  Mitford,  8  vols.  8vo.    Lond.  1838. 
Handbuch  der  Chronologic,  L.  Ideler,  2  vols.  8vo.    Berlin,  1845. 
Havemich's  Introduction  to  the  Pentateuch,  1  vol.  8vo.     Edinburgh,  1860. 
History  of  the  Hebrew  Monarchy,  Newman,  1  vol.  8vo.    New  York,  1849. 
Hieroglyphics,  Dr.  Young.    Lond.  1823,  1  vol. 
Systeme  Hieroglyphique,  Champollion  le  Jeune,  2  vols.    Paris,  1828. 
Histoire  de  VAstronomie  Ancienne,  Delambre,  2  vols.  4to.    Paris,  1817. 
English  Universal  History,  Ancient,  5  vols,  folio.     Lond.  1736. 
Benlley's  Letlers  on  Hindoo  Astronomy,  1  vol.  8vo.     Lond.  1825. 
Hora  Egyptiaca:,  R.  S.  Poole,  1  vol.  8vo.    Lond.  1851. 
Hora:  Mosaics,  G.  8.  Faber.    Lond.  1818. 
Philological  Proofs  of  the  Original  Unity  and  Recent  Origin  of  the  Human 

Race,  A.  J.  Johnes,  1  vol.  8vo.    Lond.  1846. 
Natural  History  of  the  Human  Species,  Ham.  Smith,  1  vol.  8vo.  Edinburgh, 

1848. 
Hydraulic  and  other  Machines,  Th.  Ewbank,  1  vol.  8vo.  New  York,  1849. 
Historical  Researches,  A.  H.  J.  Heeren,  (Bohn's,)  8vo.     Lond.  1846. 
Origin  of  Pagan  Idolatry,  Faber,  3  vols.  4to.    Lond.  1816. 
Elliott's  India,  2  vols,  large  8vo.     Lond.  1833. 
Recollections  of  Northern  Inda,  Buyers,  1  vol.     Lond.  1848. 
Parson's  Remains  of  Japhet,  1  vol.  4to.     Lond.  1767. 
Languages  de  V Europe  et  de  I'Inde,  Eichoff.     Paris,  1836. 
Wiseman's  Lectures  on  the  Connection  between  Science  and  Revelation,! 

vols.  12mo.     Lond.  1849. 
Letters  on  Egypt,  Edom  and  Holy  Land,  Lord  Lindsay,  2  vols.  12mo. 

Lond.  1838. 
LigUfooVs  Works,  13  vols.  8vo.    Lond.  1826. 


LIST  OF  AUTHORITIES.  651 

^Doddridge's  Lectures^  2  vols.  8vo.    Lond.  1822.  V 

Limes  Sacrees  de  V  Orient,  1  vol.  Svo,  Pauthier.     Paris,  1847. 
vLardner^s  Credibility  of  Gospel  History,  10  vols.  8vo.     Lond.  1831. 
Wilson's  Lands  of  the  Bible,  2  vols.  Svo.     Edinburgh,  1847. 
Man  Primeval,  Harris,  1  vol.  8vo.     Boston,  1849. 
yTiesearchcs  into  the  Physical  History  of  Mankind,  Dr.  Pritchard,  5  vols.  8vo. 

Lond.  1841. 
Medals  of  Creation,  by  Mantell,  2  vols.  8vo.    Lond.  1844. 
Origin  and  History  of  Missions,  by  T.  Smith,  2  vols.  4to.    N.  York,  1846. 
Manners,  t^c.  of  Modern  Egyptians,  Lane,  2  vols.  12mo.     Lond.  1836. 
Monuments  of  Nineveh,  Layard,  1  vol.  folio,  plates.    Lond.  1849. 
Monuments  de  VEgypte  ct  de  la  Nubie,  par  M,  Champollion  le  Jeune,  4 

large  folio  volumes  of  plates.     Paris,  1835. 
Monuments  Egyptiens,  par  M.  E.  Prisse,  1  vol.  folio,  plates.    Paris,  1847. 
Nineveh  and  Persepolis,  Vaux,  1  vol.  8vo.     Lond.  1851. 
Nicaragua,  E.  G.  Squier,  2  vols.  8vo.     New  York,  1852. 
Nineveh  and  its  Remains,  Layard,  2  vols,  8vo.     New  York,  1849. 
De  Wette  on  the  Old  Testament,  2  vols.  8vo.     Boston,  1843. 
Early  Oriental  History,  Dr.  Eadie,  1  vol.  8vo.     Lond.  1852. 
Origin  of  Writing,  Encyclopcedia  Metropolitana,  Thomas  Astlan. 
Origines,  Sir  W.  Drumraond,  3  vols.    London,  1829. 
Origines  Sacra,  Stillingfleet,  2  vols.  Svo,     Oxford,  1817. 
Biblical  Researches  in  Palestine,  d^c,  Robinson.    3  vols. 
Palestine,  par  Mon.  M.  Munk,  (I'Univers  Pittoresque,)  Svo.    Paris,  1845. 
Palestine,  Historical  Sketch  of,  Schwartz,  1  vol.  8vo.     Philadelphia,  1850. 
Patriarchal  Age,  Smith,  1  vol.  Svo.     New  York,  1848. 
Graves'  Lectures  on  the  Pentateuch,  1  vol.  Svo.     London,  1846. 
Phcenician  History  of  Sanconiatho,  Cumberland,  1  vol.  Svo.     Lond.  1720. 
Lectures  on  Physiology,  Lawrence,  1  vol.     London,  1848. 
One  Primeval  Language,  Foster ;  and  Voice  of  Israel  from  Rocks  of  Sinai, 

1  vol.  Svo.    London,  1851. 
Pyramids  of  Gizeh,  by  Col.  Howard  Vyse,  and  Appendix  by  Perring,  3 

large  Svo.  volumes  of  text  and  folio  vol.  of  plates.    Lond.  1840,  1842. 
Early  Travels  in  Palestine,  1  vol.     London,  1848. 
Knox  on  t/ie  Races  of  Men,  1  vol.     Philadelphia,  1850. 
Two  Lectures  on  Nat.  Hist,  of  Caucasian  and  Negro  Races,  J.  C.  Nott. 

Mobile,  1844. 
Tico  Lectures  on  Connection  between  Biblical  and  Physical  History  of  Man, 

Dr.  J,  C.  Nott.    New  York,  1849. 
Pickering  (  U.  S.  Exploring  Expedition)  on  the  Races,  1  vol.  4to. 


552  LIST  OF  AUTHORITIES. 

Dr.  Tkomas  Smythe,  on  tke  Unity  of  the  Human  JRaces,  1  vol.  12mo.    New 

York,  1850. 
History  of  Rationalism  in  Germany ^  Saintes,  1  vol.    London,  1849. 
Truth  of  Revelation,  ff-c,  Murray,  1  vol.  8vo.    London,  1840. 
Dr.  Bachman  on  the  Unity  of  Human  Races,  8vo.     Charleston,  S.  C.  1860. 
Old  Red  Sandstone,  II.  Miller,  1  vol.  12mo.  6th  edit.    London,  1860. 
Bedford^s  Scriptural  Chronology,  1  vol.  folio.     London,  1730. 
Scholia  in  Veins.  Tcstamentum,  Rosenmuller. 

V ,  Eru.  Fred.  Car.  Rosenmuller,  Leipzic,  1828. 

y  Lectures  on  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  Redford,  1  vol.  8vo.    London,  1837. 

Scripture  and  Geology,  Dr.  J.  Pye  Smith,  1  vol.  8vo.    London,  1848. 
V  South  America,  Darwin,  1  vol.  8vo.    New  York,  1846. 

Tour  from  Thebes  to  Peninsula  of  Sinai,  R.  Lepsius,  1  vol.    Lond.  1846, 
Transactions  of  the  American  Ethnological  Society.    New  York,  1848. 
Ninth  Bridgewater  Treatise,  Babbage,  1  vol.  8vo.    Philadelphia,  1841. 
L'Univers  Pittoresque,  Inde,  par  M.  Dubois,  &c.    Paris,  1848. 
Synopsis  Crilicorun,  ^c.  Sac.  Script.,  M.  Polo,  6  vols.  4to.     Frankfort  on 

Mayne,  1794. 
View  of  the  Brahminical  Religion,  Carwithen,  1  vol.  8vo.    London,  1810. 
^  Voyage  of  a  Naturalist  Round  the  World,  Darwin,  2  vols.  12mo.    New 

York,  1846. 
LyeWs  Second  Visit  to  the  United  Stales,  2  vols.  12mo.    New  York,  1849. 
Voyage  a  Meroe,  cf-c,  par  M.  F.  Caillaud,  4  vols.  8vo.     Paris,  1826. 
Principles  of  Zoology,  Agaasiz  and  Gould,  1  vol.     Boston,  1848. 
Christian  Researches  in  Asia,  Dr.  C.  Buchanan,  1  vol.    London,  1840. 
Calmet's  Didionary  of  the  Bible,  Robinson's  edition,  1  thick  vol.  Boetcm, 

1832. 
Lettres  Ecrites  d'Egypte  el  de  NuMe,  1828, 1829.  par  Champollion  le  Jenne, 

1  vol.  8vo.    Paris,  1833. 
Jahn's  History  of  the  Hebrew  Commonwealth,  1  vol.    London. 
Calmel's  Dictionary  of  Bible,  6  vols.  4to.  vol.  1,  2,  3.    London,  1798. 

,  vol.  4.    Charlestown,  1814,  vol.  6,  do.  1816. 

Topography  of  Thebes  and  General  View  of  Egypt,  Wilkinson,  1  vol.  8vo. 

London,  1836. 


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